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“It ’s a small schooner/’ he announced to Kennedy 

AND Joe Fr 07 ttispiece 


CAPTAIN PETE IN 
ALASKA 


BY 

JAMES COOPER WHEELER 

AUTHOR OF “CAPTAIN PETE OF PUGET SOUND,” “CAPTAIN 
PETE OF CORTESANA,” “THERE SHE BLOWS,” ETC. 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

31 West Twenty-third Street 


Copyright, 1910 

By E. P. Dutton & Company 



©CI,A271361 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

1 . Blondin Tells Captain Kennedy What He Found in 

Alaska i 

II. Captain Pete is Unanimously Elected President and 

Treasurer of the Yellowbird Gold Mining Company ii 

III. Captain Pete Buys a Boat 22 

IV. Pete Bids Goodby to Puget Sound 33 

V. Preparations for the Voyage. Joe Floyd Joins the 

Adventurers 44 

VI. Through the Inside Passage 56 

VII. The Captain and Mate of the Dragon’s Fang ... 68 
VIIL The Gracie Arrives at Sitka, and What She Found 

There 81 

IX. An Invitation to an Oriental Dinner. Wong and Dope 

Get Mixed 94 

X. The Poison Ball. Joe Floyd Talks to Ah Fat . . .106 

XL Hunting Trip. Captain Senkil and the Revenue Cutter 118 

XII. Captain Senkil Catches the Dragon’s Fangers Seal 

Poaching 132 

XIII. The Gracie Rescues Ah Fat, and Becomes Involved 

in the Ice-pack 146 

XIV. Lee Sing and the Pirates Escape and Follow the 

Gracie into the Sea of Ice 158 

XV. The Loss of the Dragon’s Fang, and a Plot to Re- 
place Her 170 

XVL The Pirates Attack the Gracie and are Repulsed . . 184 

XVII. What Happened to the Scar-faced Man and Todd. A 

Night Attack i 94 

XVIII. What Dope Did to the Pirates. Wong Goes Adrift . 205 


Contents 


CHAPTER PACE 

XIX. Two of Pete’s Friends Die, and One of Them Makes 

Him His Heir 217 

XX. A Second Expedition Starts for the Yukon With Pete’s 

Father in Command 228 

XXL The Tyee’s Lady Passenger. Twin-Peak Mountain and 

Dessert Spoon Bar 240 

XXII. The Scotch Trader and What He Told Floyd . . . 252 
XXIII. Another Interruption by Two Tough Customers . . 262 
XXIV. A Thousand Dollars a Pan. The Tyee and Deer Meet 


in Sitka 273 

XXV. The Gold Hunters Return. Two Beasts of Prey . . 284 


XXVI. And the Last. Wong’s End, and the Lovers’ Meeting 295 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


“It’s a small schooner,” he announced to Kennedy and 

Joe Frontispiece 

PAGE 

“The Gold is there! Highness” 74 

He tried to rise to his feet i52V^ 

“Something’s wrong” Pete exclaimed 1841^ 


It was an irregular lump of shining yellow gold . . 276 



Captain Pete in Alaska 

CHAPTER I 

BLONDIN TELLS CAPTAIN KENNEDY WHAT HE 
FOUND IN ALASKA 

T WO men stood in front of Dr. Sloggetfs drug 
store in Friday Harbor talking earnestly. 
The elder was a noble-looking fellow in the prime 
of life. His keen eye, long, heavy chin, and bronzed 
face marked him as a man of action. The second, 
some twenty years his junior, had a certain distinc- 
tion of mien that attracted attention. He was 
above the ordinary stature, but so perfectly formed 
•one did not realize the fact, while his features were 
framed in an aquiline mould that, assisted by a sal- 
low and almost swarthy complexion, betrayed to the 
student of ethnology traces of Indian ancestry. 
His bearing was that of a successful man of af- 
fairs. 

The first was our old acquaintance Captain Ken- 
nedy of the customs department of Puget Sound, 
and the listener was Peter Graignic, better known 
in San Juan County as ''Captain Pete.’’ 

I 


2 Captain Pete in Alaska 

It was more than a year since the foiling of the 
famous opium conspiracy at Port Townsend in 
which these two men had brought about the death 
of Joe Cloon, and aided Collector Hogan in the 
largest capture of smuggled opium ever made in 
the Northwest. 

''Yes, Pete,” said Kennedy, "I have resigned 
from the service. I do not care for the new head 
of the department, and anyhow there’s no more fun 
in the business like there was in the old days when 
we had Kelly and Mike McGovern and fellows of 
that stripe to keep us stirred up. When you 
dropped those two bullets into Joe Cloon that night 
on the Port Townsend wharf you knocked the tar 
out of smuggling on the Sound, and there hasn’t 
been anybody with nerve enough to go up against 
the game since.” 

"What are you driving at now?” asked Pete. 
"A man like you cannot live contentedly among us 
quiet citizens. If you could, I’d ask you to come 
over and run the shingle mill I have just bought in 
Cortesana. Why don’t you take a half interest 
with me. Cap? There’s money in it, and it would 
give you occupation.” 

"Don’t talk to me about shingle mills, Pete! If 
you left me in charge I’d break you in a month 
altho’ I hear that you’ve made money hand over 
fist since you went into that Cortesana deal. No, 
I’m not cut out for that sort of thing, and I know 
enough to keep out of it. But IVe got a bee buz- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 3 

zing in my head, and that’s the reason I ran over to 
have a talk with you. Now listen. A month ago 
I met a man in Victoria named Blondin. He was 
a crazy fool of a Frenchman who had just come 
down from Alaska. He told me he had been up 
there eight or nine years with one of the big trading 
companies at Dutch Harbor. He was a simple 
duck, and after I had known him a couple of weeks 
he began to throw out hints of a great discovery 
he had made in Alaska. I didn’t pay much atten- 
tion, and it finally made him mad because he couldn’t 
get me interested. One night when he had more 
than his usual allowance of cognac, he teased me to 
go with him to his shack on the Arm. He said he 
would tell me something of great importance. I 
laughed at him, and then he got hot, and shoved his 
hand in his belt, and pulled out a buckskin sack. 
He loosened the string at the mouth, and told me 
to hold out my hands. I did, and I’ll be horn-swog- 
gled if he did not fill them with little nuggets of 
virgin gold: ‘Now will you come with me!’ he 
snarled, ‘and I’ll tell you where I got that, and 
where there are millions more for the picking up 1’ 
You might have knocked me down with a broom 
straw! There must have been a thousand dollars 
worth of gold in the bag, and here I’d been taking 
him for a simple, common-place old stiff. To cut 
it short I went to his shack, and he told me the yarn. 
He had been up the Yukon trapping for the com- 
pany, and had made camp about four hundred miles 


4 Captain Pete in Alaska 

from the head waters, on a small creek. He'd had 
a notion there was gold in the country, and was on 
the look out. This time he struck it, sure enough. 
He dug some likely dirt, and panned it out. When 
the water dissolved the dirt and ran it off, there 
were a dozen nuggets worth a dollar or so a piece 
at the bottom of the pan. He stayed there two 
weeks, and came out with forty pounds of gold — 
about eight thousand dollars worth — which was all 
he wanted to tote. He cached the most of it, and 
only brought out what he had shown me. You see 
he had money coming from the company, and was 
afraid as death some one would get on to his secret. 
I was the first man who inspired him with confi- 
dence enough to make him open up. Does this in- 
terest you as much as shingle mills 

The question was unnecessary, and even iron- 
ical, for Kennedy had noted the flushed cheek and 
gleaming eyes that betokened how his young friend 
was taken up with the tale. However, his voice 
was cool enough as he answered : 

‘‘You have an interesting way of telling a yarn, 
Cap, but after all, I cannot see anything that looks 
very practical. You must acknowledge that the 
story is mighty improbable.’^ 

Kennedy seemed a little disgusted at his lack of 
success in enthusing Captain Pete, and took up his 
tale again: 

“Well, that's not the whole of it. I had not got 
fifty feet from his shack that night when I met a 


Captain Pete in Alaska 5 

Victoria policeman I was acquainted with, and I 
stopped to pass the time of night with him. It was 
lucky for me I did, for the next morning Blondin 
was found stabbed to death, lying on his pallet in 
the cabin. Cox, the cop, remembered meeting me 
coming out, and it seems we were the last people 
who saw him alive, for he had stood at the door 
while I talked with Cox.’^ 

‘‘By Ginger exclaimed Pete, betraying himself. 
“It’s a pity he didn’t tell you the exact location of 
that stream on the Yukon so we could find it again.” 

“Pete,” said Kennedy earnestly, “he did locate it 
— that night ! and I am the sole owner of the secret. 
Do you want to go halves in it ?” 

For answer Captain Pete held out his hand, and 
the revenue man took it in his own mighty grasp. 
Then for the first time, he let it be seen how thor- 
oughly in earnest he was himself : 

“By the Tear of the Holy Crocodile, Pete,” he 
exclaimed. “I believe in this thing as I do in my 
own six shooter. The story is true as gospel, and 
there’s a pile of glittering gold up there awaiting us 
if we have got the nerve to go and dig it out !” 

“I want to understand it better before we get 
down to business,” said Pete. “We must talk this 
over at greater length, and undisturbed. Cap. Why 
not go back with me to Cortesana? I have got a 
sloop here that I borrowed to come over in, and we 
can go in her, and do our talking on the way with- 
out any danger of being interrupted.” 


6 Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘'Just the thing/’ agreed Kennedy, “and there’s a 
fair wind.” 

Half an hour later the two were sitting in the 
stern sheets of the little craft as they drew past 
Brown’s island with a flowing sheet. 

“Now,” began Captain Pete, throwing off his in- 
difference. “Cap, I want to know how you are go- 
ing to find that place where Blondin washed out the 
gold. Can you spot it with any certainty ?” 

“It ain’t going to be so gol-darned easy,” returned 
the revenue man, scratching his head perplexedly. 
“You see, the Frenchman was going to give me a 
sort of a map that he had made, but he was pretty 
boozy, and I did not push him. At the last I came 
away without it. When he was found the next 
morning his clothes had been rifled, and it was evi- 
dent the murderer had ransacked the whole shack. 
Whoever it was must have taken the map. I do 
not suppose it was definite enough for any outsider 
to get on to what we know — ” 

“You can’t tell!” interrupted Pete. “Somebody 
is always liable to find out what you don’t want 
them to. I wish you had the paper.” 

“It’s impossible any one could interpret it with- 
out hearing the story — as I did.” 

“Well, go ahead,” said the young fellow im- 
patiently. “How can you spot the place supposing 
you get up there on the Yukon?” 

“Listen,” rejoined the other. “The Frenchman 
told me that last night — every word is burned in 


7 , 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

my memory — first, that the creek which had no 
name he was aware of, entered the Yukon about 
four hundred miles from the head waters. It is on 
the left bank of the river, going east. Now comes 
what makes me certain of finding the place. Blon- 
din said that as he turned into the little bay which 
the Yukon forms at the point where the creek comes 
in, he could see right in front of him, and appar- 
ently about fifty miles distant, a mighty, snow-cov- 
ered peak. He thought it fifteen or twenty thou- 
sand feet high, and it reminded him of Mt. Rainier 
in shape, though the top was split into two distinct 
pinnacles.'' Captain Pete drew a deep breath of 
satisfaction as Kennedy continued: ^‘At the foot 
of the bay where the stream came in there was a 
bar extending out some three hundred yards which 
by some freak of the current, had been formed into 
the exact shape of a spoon with the bowl towards 
the deep water, and the long, slender handle lead- 
ing to the shore. Now," he demanded with sudden 
heat, ‘'what do you think of that? Can we 
find it?" 

Pete nodded thoughtfully: “It looks good," he 
acknowledged. “It doesn't seem probable that any 
other creek in that vicinity would be apt to have the 
mountain and that same peculiar sand spit. I guess 
it could be found although it might take a long 
search, at that. But it is worth hunting up." 

Pete leaned back deep in thought. Kennedy did 
not interrupt his meditations, and our hero pro- 


8 Captain Pete in Alaska 

ceeded according to his habit to think the matter 
out. 

While our young hero is puzzling out his prob- 
lem is a good time to bring the reader abreast of 
the story. Those who have been acquainted with 
Captain Pete Graignic since he started in life as a 
little, half breed fisher boy from Waldron Island, 
on Puget Sound, know already how he gallantly 
fought his way upward from the humblest origin to 
a place in the world where he was a figure of im- 
portance in the community with which he had cast 
his lot. The purchase of thirty acres in the out- 
skirts of the growing city of Cortesana, through the 
counsel of his friend, Major Fisher, and some for- 
tunate transactions in which he was of service to 
the revenue department of Puget Sound, had given 
him his start. His daring and acquaintance with 
the smuggler-haunted San Juan archipelago had 
made him the chief figure in the foiling of a gigan- 
tic conspiracy against the government, and he was 
rewarded with a considerable sum of money. He 
took advantage of this windfall, and studied under 
a tutor in Port Townsend so earnestly that he made 
up for the lack of early education. 

His story has been told in ‘'Captain Pete of Cor- 
tesana’’ up to the point where he had succeeded in 
saving his friend the Collector of the Internal Rev- 
enue Department from the toils that had been 
wound about him through the machinations of Joe 
Cloon, the leader of the great conspiracy. 


9 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

In the final struggle Captain Pete had killed Cloon 
who was bringing into the United States an enor- 
mous shipment of opium, and enabled Collector 
Hogan to capture the remainder of the smugglers 
who had been defying the customs authorities. 
Pete had a still stronger motive for his activity in 
Mr. Hogan's behalf, in the fact that he was in love 
with the Collector's youngest daughter, a charm- 
ing girl named Grace. She was inclined to recip- 
rocate his affection. Having succeeded in re-es- 
tablishing Grace's father in the prestige he had 
nearly lost, and feeling that his prospects were such 
that he would be able to maintain the loved one in 
the station to which she was born, he put the mat- 
ter before the father of the lady, and asked her 
hand in marriage. 

Collector Hogan was bound to Captain Pete by 
strong ties of gratitude, and loved the lad as if he 
were his own son. He had, however, never con- 
templated him in the light of a son-in-law, and the 
idea took him aback on account of Pete's mixed 
parentage. But after considering the matter he 
swallowed the fact that our hero's mother was an 
Indian woman — albeit the daughter of a chief — 
and gave his consent to the match, although he 
stipulated Grace should be bound by no engagement, 
and that three years should elapse before there was 
any question of marriage. At the end of the period 
if they were still of the same mind, he would inter- 
pose no objections. 


10 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Grace accepted this verdict with equanimity, 
while Pete chafed consumedly. However, he had 
to grin and bear his burdens, and characteristically 
he applied himself to business with an ardor which, 
if it did not allay his impatience, bade fair to make 
him a prominent and wealthy man by the time he 
was permitted to claim his bride. His friend Mr. 
Hagan, a leading citizen in Cortesana, assisted him 
in gaining a business foothold in the new city, and 
at the time we meet him again the half breed fisher 
boy is forging into the front rank of the community. 

Pete was eighteen when this story opens although 
he had matured mentally and physically into a 
splendid man. And by the way. Dope, the great 
mastiff who took so important a part in the events 
of ‘‘Captain Pete of Cortesana,” had entirely re- 
covered from the terrible blow Cloon gave him in 
the freight shed. He was in Cortesana awaiting 
the return of his master, and was more, highly 
trained, more intelligent, and, as formidable — to 
his master’s enemies — as ever. 

To conclude our recapitulation, Tom Fisher, 
Pete’s side partner had gone to Stanford Univer- 
sity, where he was making a very good record in 
his freshman year, and getting all the fun the law 
allowed as he went along. The Major and Mrs. 
Fisher were on a visit to the old home in the East. 


CHAPTER II 


CAPTAIN PETE IS UNANIMOUSLY ELECTED PRESIDENT 
AND TREASURER OF THE YELLOWBIRD GOLD 
MINING COMPANY 



APTAIN PETE’S mind took up the whole 


matter of the Alaskan enterprise, and exam- 
ined it section by section. He was too well aware 
of Kennedy’s straightforwardness and sagacity to 
give the incident of his meeting with the French- 
man Blondin much attention. The ex-revenue offi- 
cer was the last man to be deceived by the cock-and- 
bull story of an irresponsible person. 

‘^No,” he thought, ''there cannot be much doubt 
about the gold discovery. If Blondin had lied, or 
even talked loosely, the Captain would have smelt a 
rat. I never knew his judgment to be much out of 
the way in a matter of importance. If we assume 
the Story to be true, there only remains the diffi- 
culty of finding the mouth of that creek sixteen 
hundred miles up the great river. But the French- 
man gave a vivid description, and Kennedy has 
probably got it word for word, for his memory is 
tenacious as writing on stone. I am mightily in- 
clined to take hold of the thing for the fun and ad- 
venture of it. The trip up the Yukon would be 


II 


12 Captain Pete in Alaska 

great, and if there is money at the end it would 
help me make things a little more comfortable for 
Grace. The dear girl! Two years more to wait! 
I shall run up to Port Townsend and ask her if 
she is willing I should take the trip. The boom 
business in real estate is over in Cortesana, and it 
would not hurt anything if I were to remain away 
a year. Hagan would attend to things for me, 
though I am afraid the old man will not approve of 
this adventure. He believes in ‘legitimate busi- 
ness,’ as he calls it, and he certainly has done well 
in that line himself. But ‘legitimate business’ is 
slow work while I am waiting for Grace, and the 
time would pass more rapidly up on the Yukon gold 
hunting.” He straightened up, and met Kennedy’s 
eye: “Well, Cap,” he said aloud, “I’ll go with you 
to find that gold mine !” 

“Put her there !” said the revenue man, reaching 
out his broad hand. 

“Don’t squeeze too hard. Cap,” rejoined Pete. 
“Those fingers of yours are like a vise. Have you 
made any plans for the trip?” 

“Why,” replied the other, “I do not suppose there 
will be any trouble about the journey to two old 
campaigners like you and me. We can get up to 
Sitka or Juneau easily enough by steamer or sail- 
ing vessel, and I suppose we’ll have to hoof it from 
there, and set our course by compass. But what I 
want you for, is to do some of the planning. That 


Captain Pete in Alaska 13 

cocoanut of yours is better than mine when it comes 
to figuring out things/’ 

Pete laughed as he gave a tug on the sheet to 
make the sloop lie a little closer. Then his face 
took on the look of concentration it wore when he 
was considering matters of importance. His con- 
fidence in himself had grown, and while he still 
avoided putting himself forward he had the con- 
sciousness of strength. So he answered : 

'T believe you are going off half-cock, Cap. 
This affair is important, and to go to work on an 
inadequate scale would be apt to bring us back with 
no results. You seem to think a trip through that 
Alaskan wilderness is as easy as going to Puyallup. 
It will be the most arduous journey you ever under- 
took, and we’ll have to start well prepared in order 
to win through. Everybody who has been there 
agrees that travelling in the interior is a hard 
game.” 

Kennedy’s bluff countenance looked soberer as 
he listened, but at the end he set his long and ob- 
stinate jaw, and replied: 

'Well, Pete, perhaps you’re right. I have not 
thought much about that part of it. But this 
Frenchman was certainly up there, and I am will- 
ing to gamble you and I together can go where he 
did alone.” 

"No doubt,” returned Pete, "though you must 
remember this man was a trapper, and had been 


14 Captain Pete in Alaska 

ranging over the country for years in the employ 
of the trading company, so he had a knowledge of 
the wilderness we lack. However, I do not see 
why we should undergo a lot of hardship and danger 
if we can avoid it. In the first place if we can get 
two more good, all-round men to go with us, I vote 
we take them.” 

‘‘But,” objected Kennedy, “how do we know there 
is gold enough in that creek to whack up among 
four ? By the Beak of the Sacred Emu ! I want to 
bring back enough bullion to last me the rest of my 
life. IVe got my heart set on that, Pete.” 

“All right Cap,” Pete answered with one of his 
infrequent smiles shooting across his dark face like 
sudden sunlight on a forest pool. “We can fix that. 
There is no need of taking the other two as part- 
ners. We can hire them! And I think we can go 
to the mouth of that creek in our own boat. If so, 
it will simplify matters.” 

The revenue man gave Pete a mighty slap on the 
shoulder : 

“By the White Tuft of the Crimson Ibis !” he ex- 
claimed, “You're right. Old Solomon couldn't 
have tipped it off better. That's what we’ll do! 
We'll buy a little sealing schooner over in Victoria, 
and go right up in the Bering Sea to the Yukon 
delta. We can pick up a couple of sailors and a 
cook over there to take along with us. Jehosophat, 
that's great !” 

“Perhaps we can do even better,” interjected 


Captain Pete in Alaska 15 

Pete. ‘‘My notion is to get a good, seaworthy 
boat with a stout hull that’ll stand hard usage, rig 
her for canvas, and put an engine in her so we can 
use the power as an auxiliary. About a forty foot 
hull, I should say, and thirty or forty horse power 
vertical engine. Then we would be fitted out for 
anything that could happen. I understand the en- 
gine.’’ 

The ex-revenue man stared at him in silent 
ecstasy. Pete continued : 

“Now about the crew! I have got Tom Long, 
the Englishman we called Long Tom, working at 
the shingle mill.” 

“I remember him,” said Kennedy. “We cap- 
tured him in the attack on your father’s house on 
Waldron a year and a half ago.” 

“He is a good sailorman,” resumed Pete, “and 
loyal as Dope. We’ll take him along, and pay him 
wages. And Cap, what has become of little Scotch 
Jimmy?” 

“By the Tail of the Royal Baboon!” the Captain 
burst out. “Pete, you’re a darling! He’s just the 
man, and will be glad to go with us for forty dollars 
a month and board, and say — he can cook too !” 

“Then,” rejoined Pete, “don’t you think we’d 
better put this thing in business shape? Let us, 
you and I, form a partnership for the purpose of 
finding this unknown creek, and capturing the bul- 
lion ?” 

“Hurrah!” agreed the revenue man. “We’ll call 


1 6 Captain Pete in Alaska 

it the ‘Yellowbird Gold Mining Company/ I elect 
you president and treasurer, and Pll take two thou- 
sand dollars worth of stock, and you can put in the 
same. Here’s mine, Pll pay it in now to the treas- 
urer/’ 

He took a hidden belt from around his waist, and 
counted out two thousand dollars in broad, twenty- 
dollar-gold pieces. Captain Pete stowed them away 
in a rusty tin pan in the boat locker. Then with his 
fountain pen he wrote a receipt for the money on his 
knee, added a concise statement of the understand- 
ing between Kennedy and himself, and handed a 
copy of the paper to his friend,saying: 

‘'All right. Cap, Pll put in the same amount, and 
be treasurer. Four thousand dollars ought to carry 
us through in good shape until we begin to handle 
the nuggets, and then we can make the mine pay 
expenses. You’d better hunt up Jimmy, for I am 
going to get down to work on this thing the minute 
we reach Cortesana. To-day is the twenty-first of 
May. I want to be off the mouth of the Yukon 
river by the tenth of July, and the Lord knows how 
long it is going to take to get there. You are liable 
to find floe ice in the Bering any time up to the mid- 
dle of July, and we’ve got to go through that easy 
with our little boat, you know.” 

“Pll have Jimmy on hand. Don’t you worry,” 
returned the revenue officer confidently. “What else 
can I do to help you, Pete?” 

“Nothing,” he answered, as he trimmed his sail 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


17 


and headed for the ‘‘P” street wharf which was now 
visible. "‘Pm going to take the next boat for Seat- 
tle, but ril meet you on the first of June in Vic- 
toria. ril come in that auxiliary boat, too/' 

'‘Good enough," answered Kennedy. "I suppose 
you’ll buy the necessary supplies there?" 

"Yes. Of the Hudson Bay Company," Pete re- 
plied. "They can outfit us with the right kind of 
goods. What fire arms have you got. Cap?" 

"Pm pretty well fixed," answered the old warrior. 
"Pve a heavy calibre Steven’s rifle that I had made 
to order for me, and all sorts of revolvers. Will I 
need anything more ?" 

"Better take a shot gun along," Pete advised. 

By this time the boy had let his halliards go, and 
was running the sloop on the sandy beach at the 
foot of the dock. After he had made everything 
snug, he transferred the twenty-dollar-gold pieces 
from the rusty pan to his pockets. Then he looked 
at his watch, and remarked : 

"It is only three o’clock. I’ll stop at Hagan’s 
office and put this money in the safe, and have a 
talk with him." 

"How long will you be, and where are you going 
afterwards?" asked Kennedy. 

"About half an hour. I’ve got to go and get 
Dope at Linden’s. Then I must run over to the 
shingle mill/’ 

"This Linden?" inquired Kennedy. "Is he the 
S. P. C. A. man?" 


1 8 Captain Pete in Alaska 

'That’s the one.” 

"Well, I know him. I guess I will make him and 
Dope a call. Fll wait there for you.” 

This suited Pete who had private matters to dis- 
cuss with Mr. Hagan. The snappy, little real es- 
tate dealer looked up with a scowl when the door of 
his office opened, but as he recognised our hero a 
smile took its place, and he said in the tone he used 
only to his young friend : 

"So you’ve returned. Did you get those shingle 
bolts?” 

Pete drew up a chair to the corner of the old 
man’s desk as he replied: 

"Yes, sir. I secured all I went after. But some- 
thing new has come up that I want to talk to you 
about. I have made up my mind to go away for a 
time.” 

Mr. Hagan’s features fell into their ordinary ex- 
pression again, and he snapped out at the top of his 
querulous voice: 

"Going away? Going away! I should like to 
know what on earth you want to do that for ! What 
silly idea have you got into your fool head now? 
Aren’t you getting a grip on things here, and 
making more money than any other young fellow in 
Cortesana ?” 

Pete listened to this characteristic outbreak with 
a tender heart. He knew it was dictated by his 
friend’s affection for him. As soon as he could 
edge a word in he started, without answering the 


Captain Pete in Alaska 19 

other's testy questions, where he had been inter- 
rupted : 

''1 am going to Alaska with Captain Kennedy, 
and may remain there six months or even a year." 

He paused, for Mr. Hagan's face had turned an 
apoplectic red. He bounced from his chair: 

‘"Alaska!" he exclaimed, “that howling and des- 
olate wilderness! And with that adventurer Ken- 
nedy! Are you stark, staring mad? What are 
you going to do there ?" 

“Dig gold," answered Pete stoutly, thinking he 
might as well tell the worst at once. 

Mr. Hagan fell back in his chair, and clutched 
at his scanty gray hair as he gazed at our hero in 
bewilderment. But the mention of the precious 
metal after a moment snapped his mind back to the 
practical consideration of material affairs which 
had been for fifty years his constant habit. 

“Dig gold !" he snarled. “A mare's nest ! Who- 
ever heard of gold in the frozen North! You are 
mad !" 

“No, sir," answered Pete. “Kennedy and I know 
of a large deposit on the upper waters of the Yukon. 
You ought to be well enough acquainted with me by 
this time, Mr. Hagan, to know I would not go into 
such an affair if I was not sure what I was about." 

The old man had shot his bolt, and now he began 
to calm down and examine the affair. 

“Tell me about it," he demanded. 

Pete knew he could rely on his secrecy, and re- 


20 Captain Pete in Alaska 

lated the details of Kennedy's meeting with Blon- 
din, his story of the discovery of the placer mine, 
and subsequent murder after having told the officer 
of the location of the creek. When the lad came to 
an end, he remained for some moments with his head 
on his hand in meditation . 

'Tete," he said, and his voice had resumed its 
kindly intonation. "‘Do you know this sounds like 
a large affair. I see no reason to doubt Blondin's 
story, especially as it was backed up by the actual 
gold in that buckskin bag he showed the revenue 
man. And if there was bullion in such quantity in 
the creek he prospected, it is probable there is plenty 
of the metal in other places in that country. It 
looks to me as if a new Eldorado had been acci- 
dentally discovered by this fool Frenchman who let 
himself be killed when he was the sole possessor of 
such a piece of World Information as that." 

Pete was about to speak, but the real estate man 
forestalled him, and continued : 

“You and Kennedy had better padlock your 
tongues. Do not let another soul hear a whisper 
of what you have told me. Such news flies like a 
bird to the four corners of the earth. If Blondin's 
tale is true a million adventurers will congregate in 
that frozen land the moment the fact gets out. 
That brings me to the second point. I do not like 
it that the murderer or murderers have stolen the 
sketch of the mouth of the creek, along with the bag 
of nuggets, from the body. You have not attached 


21 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

enough importance to this. Kennedy should put in 
his best detective work to find that murderer. He 
may know where Blondin had been for the last three 
years, and if he has an ounce of brains, he will make 
deductions leading him to the point you and Ken- 
nedy are headed for. Send the revenue officer back 
to Victoria by the first boat to take up the man hunt 
while you are making preparations for the journey. 
He may stumble on something of vital importance. 
Now let’s see what arrangements we can make to 
keep your business interests from suffering during 
your absence.” 

When Pete left the old man had volunteered to 
shoulder his young favorite’s affairs during the 
thne he was in Alaska, and the boy saw Mr. Hagan 
did not intend he should lose a penny during his ab- 
sence. He thanked him almost tearfully. 


CHAPTER III 


CAPTAIN PETE BUYS A BOAT 

M r. LINDEN'S cottage stood in the rear of the 
lot. Kennedy was sitting with the S. P. C. A. 
agent on the piazza when Pete opened the gate. 
As he called out his greeting a great, yellow dog 
with a black face shot down the path. He stopped 
in front of Pete, and whined a fervent, canine greet- 
ing. His master put his hand fondly on the noble 
animal's head, and said : 

‘Well, old fellow, are you glad to see me back?" 
Dope gazed in his face with devotion, and opened 
his mouth to answer in his own language, but his 
master raised his finger : 

“That will do. Dope!" he said, and with mute 
obedience the dog stalked majestically by Pete's 
side. Linden observed energetically: 

“By Jove, Pete, I'd give almost anything in the 
world but my wife, to own that dog. He is a re- 
markable brute. He's treated me as one gentleman 
would another, that he did not wish to become inti- 
mate with, ever since you went away. He will 
never change masters, and if you were taken from 
him, I think he would die of grief. And for genu- 
ine decency not many men can equal him. While 
22 


23 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

he wouldn’t do more than be civil to me and Mrs. 
Linden, he has just devoted himself to my two-year 
old girl, and has taken better care of her than a 
nurse. I have seen the kid yanking at his black 
tongue that you are so proud of, and trying to dig 
out his eyes with her strong little fingers, but the 
noble old fellow never even whimpered.” 

‘‘Yes,” agreed Kennedy, “that dog worships Pete. 
Some day he’ll kill some one that hits you, Pete !” 

“Yes, he’d do that,” said the boy. “Wouldn’t 
you. Dope?” 

As he pulled the silky ear the great dog put a 
massive paw on his breast, and looked in his face 
with solemn assurance. 

On their way to the shingle mill Pete told the ex- 
revenue officer of the comment Hagan had made 
concerning the murder of Blondin, and the disap- 
pearance of the sketch and memorandum. Captain 
Kennedy was impressed by the warning: 

“By the Serpent of the Nile!” he exclaimed. 
“That old boy is sharp. I missed a bet all right 
when I didn’t start on the trail of the fellow who 
killed the Frenchman. I was as much interested in 
the crime as the Victoria police. Of course it may 
turn out the murder was committed by some acci- 
dental thug. On the other hand if some one who 
knew Blondin was a trapper for the Alaskan Trad- 
ing Company, killed him to get those nuggets, it 
would be bad That note book with the sketch of 
the mouth of the creek would make him sit up and 


24 Captain Pete in Alaska 

look about. He must have been slick, or uncom- 
monly lucky, or he’d left some trace by which he 
could have been followed up.” 

‘‘I suppose the sketch and notes were pretty 
crude,” suggested Pete. ‘'Was Blondin edu- 
cated?” 

“No. He could barely read and write,” an- 
swered Kennedy. “It would probably be difficult 
for any one to decipher his notes, or interpret the 
sketch.” 

“Nevertheless,” observed Pete, thoughtfully, 
“the nuggets were a sort of a sign post pointing in 
the direction of the creek, and — in fact, I have a 
heap of respect for Mr. Hagan’s judgment. I be- 
lieve you had better go back, and take up the trail. 
You can discover from the police what tough men 
are in Victoria, and look them over. You would 
be likely to spot anyone that answered the bill.” 

“You are dead right!” agreed the revenue man, 
“and I’ll take the first boat.” 

“It leaves in half an hour from the ‘P’ street 
wharf,” said alert Pete, looking at his watch, “and 
I’ll see you off. We want to talk over matters a lit- 
tle more, anyway.” 

They headed for the dock discussing the points 
connected with their enterprise that needed con- 
sultation, and when the Olympia came in had for- 
mulated their plans. 

“Goodby, Cap,” Pete concluded as the other 
started for the gang plank. “Round up the mur- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 25 

derer, and we can start on our trip with less anx- 
iety/^ 

I rope him, I'll put my brand on his hide, 
ril get Jimmy to help me, and start the search in- 
stanter. I hope Pll have news for you when you 
heave in sight with the new boat. What are you 
going to name her, Pete?'’ 

'The Gracie!" called Pete, across the widening 
water. 

He turned off "P" street on the short cut to the 
mill in deep thought. Dope trotted behind, and 
every time his master straightened his knee he felt 
the slight touch of the faithful mastiff's black muz- 
zle on the calf of his leg. It was a sight worth see- 
ing, but the inhabitants of Cortesana were so ac- 
customed to the spectacle that it attracted no com- 
ment. 

As the lad entered the mill office he beckoned to a 
sturdy, sailor-like man who was superintending a 
gang of workmen in the yard. 

"Hello, Tom,” said he. "How are you getting 
along?” 

"Right as a trivet, Mr. Graignic,” answered the 
other looking at our hero with almost the same ex- 
pression of devotion that Dope wore when accosted 
by his master. "All the better for seeing you, 
sir.” 

"You remember that smuggling scrape Kennedy 
and I helped you out of, don't you, Tom?” asked 
Pete kindly. "You are a faithful fellow. I am go- 


26 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


ing to take a long, dangerous trip, and I need a man 
like you with me. Will you go, Tom?’’ 

‘T’m ready to start to-night, sir,” he answered 
with a readiness that disdained to ask questions. 

‘‘Have you ever been to Alaska, Tom?” Pete in- 
quired. 

“No, sir,” he replied. “Is it there? Not that it 
makes any difference to me.” 

Pete laughed: 

“Yes, Tom, and you will find it a pretty hard 
trip before we are through.” 

Tom rubbed his huge fists against each other, and 
his eyes began to brighten : 

“It’ll be on shipboard, sir?” he said interroga- 
tively. 

As Pete nodded his respectful smile grew broader, 
and he continued : 

“I have been hungering for a taste of salt water ! 
It’s in the blood, sir, and I’ve been along shore a 
weary while. If it hadn’t been that it meant leav- 
ing you. I’d have been off before this. When do 
we start, sir?” 

“Well, Tom, you had better get your dunnage 
ready. We’ll go to Seattle by the night boat. 
Captain Kennedy and I are going to buy an auxil- 
iary launch, and make a voyage to Alaska — per- 
haps up the Yukon River — at any rate we shall be 
gone all summer and maybe remain longer. Cap- 
tain Kennedy is waiting in Victoria, and I have got 
to get the launch. Probably Jimmy, the little 


Captain Pete in Alaska 27 

Scotchman, will be along with us as cook. How 
does the idea suit you?'’ 

‘^Bang up, sir ! Suits me down to the ground !" 

Pete stopped him as he was about to make a bee 
line for his quarters, and said : 

"'You’d better get your time, Tom, and draw what 
is coming to you. Meet me at the "P’ street wharf 
at eight o’clock when the North Pacific comes in.” 

"Aye, aye, sir.” 

Pete told his manager he was going away for a 
time and had left the control of his affairs with 
Mr. Hagan, to whom he should look for orders. 
Then he went to his own office in the brick build- 
ing he had erected on the "P” street lot purchased 
from Mr. Hagan on the first day Cortesana was 
laid out. Pete had reserved a large room in the 
rear, and here he kept his private belongings, and 
"batched” while in the city. In a rack in one 
corner were several handsome rifles of the latest 
pattern, and a superb Paradox shotgun presented 
to him by the grateful Collector shortly after the 
foiling of the Cloon conspiracy. This gun was 
made in London by a celebrated English manufac- 
turer, and was intended for big game hunting in 
Africa. It would either utilize small shot, or when 
necessary an infernally destructive explosive bullet 
guaranteed to bring down a lion or an elephant. 

Pete handled the weapons lovingly as he took 
them apart and packed them in their cases. He put 
them in a large sea chest his father had given him 


28 Captain Pete in Alaska 

when he left Waldron Island. He had preserved 
this chest out of loyalty to his early surroundings, 
and as he threw open the lid his memory turned 
wistfully back to the time when the unkempt fisher 
boy of San Juan County left his home, and started 
out in the world for himself. He knew his Indian 
mother would sympathise with the longings which 
led him to embark on his present adventure, and he 
wondered what his sagacious old father would say 
to the enterprise. Then his face suddenly lighted 
up: 

‘‘Why,^’ he muttered, '‘of course! When I come 
up from Seattle in the new boat, I’ll drop in at 
Waldron on my way to Victoria, and see them. If 
it wasn’t for mother and the kiddies I bet Dad 
would go along.” 

After he had stowed the guns in his chest he 
took the revolver from the wall. It was the one 
Captain Kennedy had given him the night they 
captured Mike McGovern and Three-fingered Bill 
on Lopez Island. He took it apart, cleaned, and 
oiled it thoroughly, and stowed it in a specially 
lined hip pocket where it would rest without at- 
tracting observation. Then he called an express- 
man, and had the chest taken down to the wharf to 
await the boat. 

According to program he took supper with Mr. 
Hagan. Now that the adventure had been decided 
on he had thought the matter over to considerable 
purpose, arid gave the lad suggestions that Pete 


Captain Pete in Alaska 29 

carefully put away in his memory, and profited by 
more than once. 

Long Tom was at hand when they walked down 
to the wharf in the Puget Sound twilight. He was 
dressed in a nautical white duck suit, and looked 
every inch a sailor as he crossed the gang plank 
carrying his dunnage in a round-bottomed canvas 
bag. 

They put up at the Hotel Northern in Seattle, 
and Pete got busy among the shippers. While thus 
occupied he sent Long Tom along the wharves that 
skirt Elliott Bay to see what he could find. Plenty 
of vessels were on hand, but they were just the ones 
the lad did not want. As he returned to the hotel 
he was inclined to abandon the search in Seattle, 
and purchase a sealing schooner in Victoria. Then 
he reflected that such a vessel would be of little use 
to the exploring party ascending that sixteen hun- 
dred miles of the mighty Yukon. He knew the 
current of the river ran from four miles an hour 
where it was broadest up to eight or nine miles 
where the banks narrowed. The trip seemed im- 
possible except by steam. 

^ As he entered the rotunda of the hotel Long Tom 
greeted him in considerable excitement : 

‘'Boss,’’ he said, “I have found a boat I think 
will suit, although it is not quite what you laid out 
to get.” 

Pete brightened up, and said quickly: 

“Good for you, Tom! I haven’t seen a single 


30 Captain Pete in Alaska 

craft the whole day that would answer my purpose. 
What have you got?’’ 

‘The owner is in the bar.” 

Pete followed, and Tom introduced him to a 
burly, middle-aged man by the name of Hanks. It 
appeared he was a freight-boat captain on the 
Sound, and was obliged to sell his swift, powerful 
little craft because a widowed sister had recently 
died in Chicago, and left several young children 
whose welfare demanded his immediate presence in 
that city. He was anxious to dispose of his boat 
for almost any money in order to get away as soon 
as possible. 

The Gamecock lay at a wharf in the upper town, 
and Pete did not even stop to get dinner. They 
jumped on a Belmont car, and in fifteen minutes 
were at the dock. Pete was delighted the moment 
he set eyes upon the vessel. It was a powerful 
river tug whose ability was out of all proportion to 
its size. It was flat-bottomed, but Captain Hanks, 
who was by way of being an inventor, had fitted her 
with what he called a “detachable keel.” He 
claimed this made her capable of going anywhere 
on the ocean, and when “detached” reduced her 
draft to two feet, which was indispensable in river 
traffic. The engines were of the newest pattern, 
and had been put in the hull ten months before. 
He guaranteed her to make steam on wood or coal 
indifferently, and said if he had her hawser at- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 31 

tached to a house he could pull it after him into deep 
water. 

The Gamecock had an after cabin and three state 
rooms off it. There was an up-to-date galley, and 
room in the hold, to carry considerable cargo. 
Hanks said she had coal in the bunkers, and was 
ready to put to sea. Her coal consumption was 
large but Pete anticipated no trouble in procuring 
fuel in his trip to the North, and he could always 
substitute wood — which was plentiful and cheap — 
for coal. 

‘What do you want for the Gamecock just as she 
is — cash down on the nail?'" asked Pete. 

Hanks considered a moment, and then said : 

“Do you really mean business, sir?" 

“You bet your life I do," answered Pete. 

“Give me eight hundred dollars, and she is 
yours," affirmed Hanks, looking Pete straight in 
the eye. 

“Sit down at that table, and write out your bill of 
sale," said Pete. “Here is your money." 

He drew out his cheque book and fountain pen, 
filled a cheque for the amount, and held it awaiting 
the bill of sale Hanks was laboriously transcribing. 
When he had finished he passed the blotted docu- 
ment to Pete, and received the cheque. Hanks 
looked at it with a little bewilderment, but before he 
could speak Pete said : 

“Now if you will come back with me to the Hotel 


32 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

Northern I will get the manager to give you the 
cash for that piece of paper/' 

Hanks face lighted up as he answered : 

‘Thank you, sir. You see," he added, “I ain't 
much accustomed to doing business with anything 
but the hard cash." 

Pete smiled, put the bill of sale in his pocketbook, 
and they started back. Mr. Brown, the manager, 
happened to have bought some Cortesana lots of 
Pete, and knew him and his financial status. He 
did not hesitate a moment, but said to Hanks : 

“Just slap your name on the back of that." 

He went to the safe, and from an inner drawer 
took out forty double eagles, and handed them to 
Hanks. 

This closed the transaction. Hanks was anxious 
to show his appreciation of the way our hero did 
business, and invited him and Tom Long to dinner. 
They went to the famous Chop House in the alley 
off Cherry Street, and had a meal that would have 
done credit to a Delmonico chef. 


CHAPTER IV 


PETE BIDS GOODBY TO PUGET SOUND 

IN a small room in a building on Post street in 
* Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, Cap- 
tain Kennedy sat in meditation. Things had not 
gone to suit him, and his investigation into the 
Blondin murder was leading in a direction that 
made him dread future developments. 

‘‘By the Jumping Kangaroo!’’ he muttered to 
himself, “this matter is growing mixed up and un- 
satisfactory. It looks to me as if the trail of Blon- 
din’s murderer is leading towards the Chinese 
colony. That piece of blue cloth these English po- 
lice sized up to be torn from a pair of overalls came 
off a Chinaman’s blouse, and putting it together 
with the opium pipe stem I picked up by the back 
door of the shack, it looks as if these Oriental cusses 
had something to do with the crime. They are hard 
to track as I have found out before. Well,” he said, 
more cheerfully, “there’s one lucky thing about it ! 
It is not probable that a Chinaman will pick up the 
clue to the Blondin mine.” 

There was a short knock at the door. It opened 
without awaiting permission, and a little, sandy- 
haired, smooth-faced man entered the room. 

33 


34 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

''Hallo, Jimmy,’’ said the Captain. "What have 
you found out?” 

The Scot’s rigid face relaxed into an expression 
of satisfaction as he unwrapped a small bundle. 

"What have you got there?” asked Kennedy with 
interest. 

"I found it in the ash barrel in front of Lee Sing’s 
store.” 

He spread on the table in front of Kennedy a blue 
blouse such as is worn by Chinamen of the middle 
class. A large pipce was torn from the bosom, and 
there were dull stains on the garment which made 
Kennedy thrill with excitement. He took a mag- 
nifying glass from his pocket, and examined one 
of the spots minutely. Then he wetted the end of 
his forefinger, and rubbed it on the place. When 
he took it away the end was stained red, and he ex- 
claimed : 

"Blood, by the living Jingo!” 

"It wasn’t in the barrel on the sidewalk at twelve 
o’clock last night, but I got it at daylight this morn- 
ing,” observed the Scotchman. 

"Yes,” nodded Kennedy. "I’m surprised at Lee 
Sing. Such a carelessness is not like him, or his 
tribe.” 

If the reader looks back to page 86 of "Captain 
Pete of Puget Sound,” he will find some informa- 
tion in regard to this Chinaman of the name Lee 
Sing. At that time Kennedy first made the ac- 
quaintance of the fisher boy who was visiting Vic- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 35 

toria with his father in the sloop Tyee. The rev- 
enue man had treated Pete to a trip through the 
Chinese Quarter. Pete was greatly interested, and 
they finally entered a tea store. 

‘^The air of the room was warm and a peculiar 
fragrance struck Pete as unlike anything he had 
ever smelt before. He was inclined to attribute it 
to rare spices, or something of that sort, but the offi- 
cer called his attention to a fat Celestial sitting be- 
hind the counter smoking a long-stemmed, pipe with 
a thick bowl that had a little hole the size of a pea 
in the center. It was the smoke from this that made 
the smell, and what was being smoked was opium 
instead of tobacco. This man was evidently the 
proprietor, for a clerk sat nearby making queer in- 
scriptions with a brush in a blank book.’’ 

While Kennedy and Pete were in the store an- 
other man entered whom Kennedy recognized as a 
desperate smuggler, and a side partner of Kelly 
whom Pete had been instrumental in capturing in 
Dog Fish Pass. After they had left the store Ken- 
nedy said : 

T wonder what Mike McGovern was doing in 
Lee Sing’s ?’ ” 

‘‘ Ts that the name of the fat Chinaman who sat 
behind the counter?”’ asked Pete. 

‘Yes.^ ” 

‘‘ Then I guess they had some business together 
they didn’t want you to know, for I saw Lee Sing 
making signs to Mike that we were there.’ ” 


36 Captain Pete in Alaska 

The boy’s quickness of eye was the cause of put- 
ting Kennedy on the scent of the opium run that 
the Chinaman and McGovern were engaged in, and 
the eventual capture of Mike. The astute and un- 
scrupulous Lee Sing was a leader in the illicit opium 
trade at that time being extensively carried on be- 
tween Victoria on the British, and Port Townsend 
on the American side. 

Kennedy was, in truth, a good deal surprised to 
find Lee Sing involved in the present affair. He 
had not believed the Chinaman to be inclined to vio- 
lent crime. At the same time he was aware there 
was very little that a vicious Chinese would stop at 
when there was money in sight. On thinking the 
matter over he came to the conclusion it was im- 
probable the Celestial had attached significance to 
papers found on the murdered Frenchman. 

‘T’ll report the matter to Captain Pete,” he said. 
^^And see what he thinks about it.” 

Pete and Long Tom were on board the Gamecock 
shortly after daylight. The second inspection 
proved even more satisfactory than the one of the 
day preceding. 

‘T’ll have to put a couple of short spars in her 
and change her into a schooner,” said Pete to Long 
Tom. 

‘That’s easy done, sir,” remarked the English 
man-of-war’s man. 

‘Tes,” agreed Pete. ‘T’ll put the main mast just 
forward of the main hatch.” 


37 , 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

“What sail are you going to carry, sir 
“Fore-sail, jib, and mainsaiV replied Pete. 

Our hero concluded he would fit her out with the 
necessary spars at Cortesana. He contracted with 
Hank’s former mate to go with them as far as Vic- 
toria while Long Tom agreed to act as fireman for 
the nonce. Before starting the lad bought a num- 
ber of bolts of duck on Long Tom’s assurance that 
he could cut and fit the sails. 

After dinner they started for Cortesana. Pete 
created quite a sensation when he tied the Gamecock 
to the “P” street wharf, and his acquaintances 
thronged about the vessel full of curiosity to know 
what he intended to do with the tug. He did not 
give them much satisfaction, and was forced to tell 
a number of white lies to account for it 

Long Tom had at once set out to hunt up the 
necessary spars, and Pete took a number of meas- 
urements of the bow to carry out an idea that had 
occurred to him while they were coming from Se- 
attle. His intention was to make a false bulk-head 
at his mill. He thought he could cut and fit pieces 
of heavy timber in such a way that they could be 
stowed in the hold, and joined together when the 
necessity arose to protect the bow from the ice. It 
was on the principle of a portable house. In fact 
this preventer bulk-head turned out to be of impor- 
tance before the end of the perilous voyage. 

Long Tom had no difficulty finding masts. He 
got two short and rather heavy ones, and thirty- 


38 Captain Pete in Alaska 

six hours after they had arrived they were stepped, 
and stayed with wire shrouds. Pete’s false bulk- 
head was sawed out, numbered piece by piece, and 
stowed away in the hold. Long Tom also meas- 
ured and fitted the sails ready to be sewed by the 
sail-maker when they reached Victoria. 

Old Mr. Hagan could hardly tear himself away 
from the vessel. To Pete’s amusement the spirit 
of adventure which inspired the enterprise had 
taken such complete possession of the old real estate 
dealer that he neglected his business to watch the 
interesting proceedings on board the Gamecock, 

‘‘Good by, Pete,” he said, wringing the boy’s 
hand as they were about to cast off the mooring 
lines. “Good-by, my boy. I believe you’ll have a 
good time after all, and I hope you will come back 
with the cabin filled with gold.” 

The first port the Gamecock made was Port 
Townsend. As soon as she was tied up, Pete made 
for the Collector’s residence. Grace saw him com- 
ing up the street and admitted him at the door. 
She had grown to be a lovely girl. 

“There’s nobody home but me,” said she with a 
twinkle of pleasure at the involuntary delight dis- 
played in Pete’s swarthy features over this infor- 
mation. “Where on earth have you come from. 
Captain Pete, and why are you looking so elated?” 

“Why, Grace, dear,” he answered, “of course Pm 
tickled to death to see you again, and I have got 
some astonishing news. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 39 

‘'What is it?’' asked the girl eagerly, as they 
sat down hand in hand. 

“I shall start for Alaska with Captain Kennedy 
by the first of June to be gone a year.” 

The vivid color faded from Grace’s face as her 
white hand clutched Pete’s brown one more 
tightly. 

“What do you mean, you crazy boy?” she de- 
manded. 

In reply Pete told her the story. He bound her 
to secrecy, explaining that it was all important that 
no hint of the matter should reach outside ears. 
On the eve of the separation she permitted herself 
to show her affection plainly. While she was not 
so much interested in the prospective profits of the 
enterprise, she was inclined to be proud that her 
hero should engage in something that would dem- 
onstrate his manhood to the world. Secretly, she 
thought of him as a knight-errant of old starting 
on a quest for the purpose of laying treasure at 
the feet of his lady love. A vein of ardent romance 
ran through her temperament, and she acknowl- 
edged that the only objection she had to the adven- 
ture was that Pete would be unable to keep her 
posted by letter of his daily life. 

Pete only told the Collector he was going with 
Captain Kennedy on a pleasure trip to the Yukon 
River, and the Collector knew them sufficiently well 
to understand how much enjoyment they would get 
out of such an exploring party. They insisted on 


40 Captain Pete in Alaska 

the boy remaining to dinner, and then he bade them 
adieu. 

When he anchored in front of Mr. Graignic’s 
cottage the old fisherman and his Indian wife hur- 
ried down to the shore to greet their boy. Pete 
had not been home for months, and his mother was 
speechless with joy over his unexpected appearance. 

Since Tom Fisher had first visited Captain Pete 
the fisherman’s cottage had become an almost pre- 
tentious residence. Mr. Graignic was now a pros- 
perous man, and had a substantial balance in the 
Port Townsend National Bank. He had built a 
roomy addition to his house, and had a well 
furnished parlor that his Indian wife religiously 
kept out of — except while sweeping and dusting it. 
She never sat there herself, although Pete had sent 
a sumptuous ''patent rocker” for her especial delec- 
tation. 

After the others had retired, the fisherman and 
his son sat by the window — in which the father in 
years agone had always placed the lamp to serve as 
beacon for Pete — looking out through the soft 
moonlight on the Gamecock moored in the still 
water. 

"Now, Dad,” commenced Pete, "I want to tell 
you something that will interest you.” He had not 
said a word so far of the quest for gold. "Captain 
Kennedy and I have bought this boat to go to 
Alaska in. We think we know of a great deposit 
of gold on the upper reaches of the Yukon River.” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


41 


For the third time, Pete told the story. The ex- 
citable Frenchman twitched his hands, shuffled his 
feet, and jerked about convulsively as he listened 
to the tale of Blondin, the murdered gold digger. 
When it was finished he sat in silence. The pres- 
sure of his interlocked fingers showed white on his 
knuckles. Then his head straightened on his 
shoulders like a war horse who sniffs the battle 
from afar, and he started impetuously to speak. A 
second thought overtook him, and little by little the 
radiant light died in his eye, and the eagerness 
faded from his features. 

‘‘Sacre!’’ he ejaculated. 'Tor a moment, Pete, 
I forgot myself, and zought I was going wiz you ‘ 

"Why don’t you come?” quietly asked his son. 

The blood mounted in the old man’s face until it 
was red as a lobster. Then he answered reproach- 
fully : 

"Don’t tempt me, Pete ! I’d give my head to be 
wiz you, but your mozer and ze kids — I can’t leave 
zem! It wouldn’t be right. You know it as well 
as I.” 

"Well, perhaps that’s so,” admitted his son. 

"Hagan was right,” observed the fisherman 
thoughtfully. "It’s a discovery zat will shake ze 
whole world before it is done. If Blondin discov- 
ered zis rich deposit on ze Yukon zere is probably 
gold distributed zrough zat geological formation 

1 Mr. Graignic’s Gallic lisp is described on page 36 of “ Cap- 
tain Pete Of Puget Sound.” 


42 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

all over ze north. It is a wonderful zing for you 
and Kennedy to be on ze ground first. But you 
will find you cannot hold it in your own hands. Ze 
secret will soon be out, and zere will be a rush like 
zat which made California famous in ^49, when 
Sutter gazered ze first grains of gold from ze breast 
of his mill dam.’’ 

'That’s about what Mr. Hagan seemed to think,” 
agreed Pete meditatively. "We will have to be 
cautious, and work as swiftly as possible. I hope 
to gracious the slayers of Blondin did not get any 
clue.” 

"At all events,” concluded the old man, knocking 
the ashes out of his pipe and arising, "if you will 
take me for a passenger, I am going as far as Vic- 
toria on ze Gamecock to see you off.” 

"That’s bully,” assented Pete as they went to bed. 

Daylight had just broke when Pete was aroused 
by the deep bay of Dope, who had followed him 
ashore the night before, and slept on the door step. 
As he looked out of the window, he saw a boat 
containing Long Tom leave the Gamecock, He 
sung out : 

"All right, old fellow!” to the dog, and dressed 
himself at once. The fisherman was making the 
fire in the kitchen as he came down, and said : 

"We’ll have Long Tom to breakfast for ze sake 
of old times. I’ve got some razor-edge clams zat 
I’ll fry in batter.” 

Long Tom had a warm spot in his heart for the 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


43 


old fisherman, and was delighted to be once more 
on Waldron Island, albeit his first experience in 
that locality had been more exciting than pleasant.^ 
Mrs. Graignic had added fried chicken to the 
bill of fare for breakfast, and they shortly sat down 
in the bright, early Puget Sound morning to a 
V bountiful meal that carried Pete back to the days 
of his boyhood. 

There was a pathetic expression on the Indian 
mother’s face as she said good bye to her grown-up 
son. She had never become reconciled to his civi- 
lized career, successful as it had been. In her 
heart she would have preferred him to share the 
daily life of the family, instead of being a prosper- 
ous man of affairs in what seemed to her the vast 
and populous city of Cortesana. With the stoical 
courage of her race, however, she repressed her 
emotions and resigned herself to fate. 

1 See chapters twenty-two and twenty-three of Captain Pete 
Of Puget Sound. Ed. 


CHAPTER V 


PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE — JOE FLOYD JOINS 
THE ADVENTURERS 

ELL/’ said Pete, 'diow do you like her, 
VV Cap?” 

Kennedy had identified the Gamecock as she 
came to an anchor in the Arm. Pete had brought 
her here rather than tie her at the dock. He was 
afraid the unusual character of her rig would ex- 
cite inquisitiveness. 

'' She’ll do well enough,” replied Kennedy. 
‘'She is larger than I expected. I am glad you got 
along so soon.” 

“Any news ?” inquired Pete. 

“Yes! Do you remember Lee Sing, Pete? The 
Chinese tea dealer, in whose store you and I met 
Mike McGovern a couple of years ago?” 

“I do — mighty well! What of him?” 

“Well, it looks a good deal like he framed the 
job, if he didn’t do the actual killing, in the Blondin 
afiFair.” 

“Tell me all about it,” said Pete. 

Kennedy related how he had found the stem of 
an opium pipe in a crevice of the stone step at the 
rear door of Blondin’s cabin. How Scotch Jimmy, 
44 


45 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

who was now in the employ of Graignic & Kennedy, 
Gold hunters, had found a torn and stained blouse 
in the ash-can in front of Lee Sing’s tea store. 
The city police picked up a piece of the same cloth 
in Blondin’s shack the day after the murder. They 
had diagnosed it as coming from dungaree over- 
alls, and had followed the clue on that interpreta- 
tion. Kennedy was convinced the fragment was 
torn from the blouse Jimmy had found in the ash- 
can. Kennedy had been unobtrusively hunting up 
Lee Sing’s antecedents. He discovered enough to 
convince him the Chinaman had once been com- 
manding officer on one of the piratical junks which 
infest the China and Zooloo seas. 

‘"Cap,” said Pete, ‘'we’re going to have trouble. 
We had better put the ‘Yellowbird Gold Mining 
Company’ on a war footing.” 

“Do you think Lee Sing is on the track of the 
Alaska gold through Blondin’s map?” 

“With Orientals there is never any limit to what 
may happen. I believe Lee Sing is craftier than 
a fox, unscrupulous as a hyena, and untiring as a 
timber wolf. He’s intelligent, too. If he has the 
slightest inkling he will follow the thread up until 
he reaches the end of the coil sixteen hundred miles 
up the Yukon River.” 

“Whew !” gasped Kennedy. 

“We must not waste time!” continued Pete. 
“I’m going to clear for Sitka inside of the next 
forty-eight hours. We ought to have another 


46 Captain Pete in Alaska 

hand, Cap. Do you know of any first-class man 
who would be inclined to go with us 

Kennedy could think of no one entirely desirable. 

‘Well, have your eye out for one,’' concluded 
Pete. “Long Tom will keep ship, and I’ll go 
ashore with you. No, Dope,” he added as the 
mastiff put a paw on his breast, “you’d be in the 
way.” 

Dope looked disappointed, but lay down again. 

It happened that Pete did not have to go far for 
the additional man he wanted. His first stop was 
at a gloomy-looking stone ware-house on the water- 
front. It has already been described to Captain 
Pete’s friends, and was in fact the store and supply 
depot of the Hudson Bay Company. That power- 
ful old-world corporation has, since the first set- 
tlement of Northwestern America, controlled the 
trade with the Indians and made enormous profits 
through possessing a monopoly in the fur business, 
and other products of the vast country known as 
British North America. Its forts, and supply and 
trading stations, dotted over the whole territory, 
were manned by employees who gathered up the 
trade and enabled the Company to defy competi- 
tion. Although unpretentious, this huge, stone 
building was massive and English in character. 
It carried as large and varied stock as had at that 
time ever been brought together in one building. 
This was essential, as the Company not only sup- 
plied the meager wants of the savages, but fitted 


47 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

out its employees who, to the number of thousands, 
were scattered throughout the Northwest. Its 
business extended to the wildest recesses of Assin- 
iboia and Saskatchewan. All these establishments 
drew their supplies from Victoria, which was itself 
a Hudson’s Bay settlement. Fifty years ago it 
only contained the fort and station of the Company. 
It has grown to be a beautiful English city of one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants. 

Pete came in collision with a man as he entered 
the swing door. Each drew back, and started to 
apologise. As Pete got a fair view of the other, 
he said : 

'Why, I believe it is Joe Floyd of McNiel’s 
Island. Don’t you remember me, Mr. Floyd? I 
am Pete Graignic, little Murph’s friend.” 

Joe looked down on Pete, for he overtopped him 
by six inches. He answered with a drawl that was 
not in keeping with the alert glance of his keen, 
wintry blue eyes : 

"Cap’n Pete of Puget Sound, and afterwards of 
Cortesana, I reckon ?” said he interrogatively. 

Pete nodded, seeming extraordinarily glad to 
meet him. 

'What are you doing so far away from home, 
Mr. Floyd?” he asked pleasantly. 

'Why,” replied Joe, "I just sold that there ranch 
of mine on McNiel’s to an Englishman, and I come 
over here to get my money.” 

Pete introduced Kennedy, who had followed him 


48 Captain Pete in Alaska 

into the building, to Floyd. The two men sized 
each other up with appreciation. Both were in the 
prime of life and each appeared endowed with 
the strength of a giant, while their alert movements 
indicated that their size did not handicap them in 
the matter of activity. Kennedy understood in a 
moment that Pete had Floyd in mind as the neces- 
sary recruit. 

‘'Have you concluded your deal?’’ asked Pete. 

“Got the cash in my clothes,” drawled the 
rancher. 

“Joe,” exclaimed Captain Pete suddenly and 
frankly, “Kennedy and I are looking for a man of 
your build. Are you open to an engagement?” 

“Well, say,” interrogated Joe, “do I have to have 
a character ?” 

The gold miners smiled, and Kennedy put in: 

“We’ll take you on trust, Floyd!” 

“I reckon you’ll have to,” said the latter. “What 
is it? I’m foot free.” 

“If you’ve got time,” said Pete, after a moment’s 
reflection, “come along with us to Kennedy’s room, 
and we’ll talk the matter over.” 

Five minutes after, as they sat around the table, 
Pete said to Kennedy: 

“Cap, Joe Floyd is a man we can tie to. I know 
he can be relied upon through thick and thin. 
What do you say if we take him in on the first floor 
of the ‘Yellowbird Gold Mining Company,’ and 


Captain Pete in Alaska 49 

offer him ten per cent, of the profits if he is willing 
to join us?'' 

Floyd drew his long legs more closely to the 
chair, and shifted his huge, gaunt frame so he had 
a clear view of their faces. Kennedy knew his 
young friend was sure of his ground when he made 
a break of this kind. Without perceptible hesita- 
tion, he answered : 

‘Whatever you say goes, Pete." 

“Gold mining?" inquired Joe Floyd politely. “I 
follered it some in Californy before I came to the 
Sound." 

The firm of Kennedy & Graignic exchanged 
glances of satisfaction, and, Pete opened up the 
Blondin matter. Floyd did not interrupt, and as 
he listened his face took on a look of power that 
surprised the others. At the end he spoke in the 
decisive accent of a man of action. 

“That 'ere is a mighty interestin' yarn. There 
ain't no doubt of the gold being in Alaska. I have 
always suspicioned it. I ain't got nobody to con- 
sult but myself, and I accept your proposition. 
Ten per cent, of the finding, and you pay expenses. 
Put it in writin' Captain Pete, so I can leave it to 
Murph's mother if I should be wiped out on the 
trip." 

Pete wrote out a memorandum of the agreement, 
and handed it to the rancher. 

“What about the Chinaman part of this busi- 


so Captain Pete in Alaska 

ness?^’ inquired Joe, after a moment’s reflection. 
''I never knowed but one Chinaman I could trust, 
and he’s right here in Victoria.” 

‘They’re risky animals to put confidence in,” re- 
marked Pete tentatively. 

“Sure as shooting,” confirmed Kennedy 

“That’s so!” resumed Joe Floyd. “But when I 
know a man, I know him down to the ground. 
This fellow. Ah Fat, follered me up to the Sound, 
and worked with me four years when I was ranch- 
ing in Skagit County. He’s white clear through 
from front to back.” 

While the rancher was making this strong state- 
ment, Pete and Kennedy were regarding one an- 
other inquiringly. 

“What do you think, Pete?” asked Kennedy 
doubtfully. 

“I hardly know,” replied our hero with some in- 
decision. “On the whole. Pm inclined to believe 
that when Joe Floyd says he knows a thing, he 
knows it pretty well.” 

“All right! Go ahead,” said Kennedy. 

Pete turned to Floyd : 

“Joe, if this Celestial friend of yours is now in 
Victoria, Kennedy and I want you to put him on 
the job of finding out all he can about Lee Sing, 
the tea merchant, and how far he was connected 
with the Blondin murder.” 

“Good enough,” returned Joe. “Pll lay him on 
the trail to-night.” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 51 

‘‘There’s no time to lose,” resumed Pete. “The 
Gamecock clears for Sitka day after to-morrow. I 
suppose ril have to take out papers. We’ll leave 
in the night so as not to attract attention.” 

At this point Pete’s father joined them, and the 
conference broke up. Mr. Graignic had rustled up 
three sail-makers, and sent them aboard the Game- 
cock. Joe had private business, and the other three 
rowed out in the small boat that had been pur- 
chased with the tug. 

“I am glad you got Floyd,” said the fisherman. 
“You’ll find him all wool and a yard wide, and I’ve 
heard he’s as good a woodsman as zere is on ze 
coast.” 

When they reached the Gamecock they found 
two men in a boat talking to Tom Long. 

“Here are the bosses now !” exclaimed he. “Tell 
them what you want.” 

The strangers were two hardy and vigorous, but 
rough looking fellows. The one who held the oars 
was almost as tall as Joe Floyd. The socket of 
one of his eyes was vacant, and the scar of a great 
gash disfigured that side of his face. Altogether, 
he was a vicious-looking customer. 

“We thought, sir,” he said, “that maybe you 
wanted to hire a couple of good hands if you’re 
going ofif on a trip in this hooker.” 

“Where do you want to go?” inquired Pete 
tersely. 

“We ain’t particular, sir. Anywhere you’re 


52 Captain Pete in Alaska 

bound for/’ This last was said rather inquiringly, 
and made Pete suspicious. 

The lad knew he was treading a pathway set with 
snares, and was inclined to question anything out 
of the ordinary. It was unusual for sailors hunt- 
ing a berth to come to such a craft as the Game- 
cock. He considered a moment, and inquired: 

‘'What wages do you fellows want?” 

“Whatever’s going !” said the tall fellow eagerly. 
“What might the v’y’ ge be, sir ?” 

This question was asked with a sudden glare of 
interest. 

“We’re thinking of a trip to Sitka,” said Pete. 

The big fellow bared a pair of yellow fangs in 
a grin : 

“That will suit, sir, down to the ground !” he an- 
nounced. 

“But — ” added Pete, “I can’t afford to pay 
wages. We’re going on a sort of trading trip, and 
have got to keep down expenses.” 

“That’s all right, sir !” agreed the other promptly. 
“We’ll go on a lay.” 

Pete’s suspicions were confirmed, although he 
could not for the life of him see how anyone could 
suspect the intention of the Gamecock's voyage. 
He felt convinced, however, that there was some 
hidden purpose in the offer of these outcasts to join 
them. 

“All right,” he said finally. “There’s plenty of 
time. We won’t be ready to clear for a week. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 53 

Come around in seven days, and perhaps we’ll give 
you a berth.” 

This concluded the interview, and Kennedy and 
Pete retired to the cabin. Before he went below, 
Pete said quietly to Long Tom: 

‘^Don’t let those fellows come aboard, Tom.” 

Tom answered promptly: 

‘‘No, sir. I wouldn’t like that one-eyed chap for 
a ship mate.” 

About eleven o’clock that night a bellow from 
Dope rang out over the waters as a canoe shot 
alongside the Gamecock, Pete was on deck the 
next moment, and heard the hail of — 

^^Gamecock ahoy !” in Joe Floyd’s voice. 

“That you, Joe ?” he inquired. 

“Yes,” answered the rancher. “I thought as 
I’ve shipped for the v’y’ge I’d sleep on board.” 

“That’s right!” answered Pete heartily. “Come 
right aboard.” As Joe stepped over the rail with 
the painter of the canoe in his hand. Dope thrust 
his inquiring nose ahead of his master. “Have 
you ever met Dope?” asked the boy. 

“No,” returned Floyd, putting his hand boldly 
on the huge black head, “but I’ve heard of him 
plenty. Oh, you needn’t be afeard he’ll bother me, 
sir !” he continued, as Pete hastily put his hand ou 
the mastiff’s collar. “There ain’t no animal, tame 
or wild, that I can’t get along with.” 

Dope’s conduct certainly confirmed this state- 
ment. Contrary to his habit, he received Joe’s 


54 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

caress with pleasure, and concluded by planting 
both paws on his breast, and licking his face. Pete 
watched the dog with amazement. 

‘'Well!'’ he exclaimed. “Joe Floyd, you're cer- 
tainly, all right! When Dope says so, that settles 
it." 

The rancher told Pete he had seen Ah Fat, and 
would get a report from him in the morning. He 
said Lee Sing had a bad reputation among the more 
respectable residents of the Chinese colony, and was 
reputed to be a dangerous man, in spite of his in- 
offensive appearance. 

The twenty-eighth of May was a busy day on 
board the Gamecock, Pete had purchased a year's 
outfit of stores, and clothing. He did not neglect 
to lay in a supply of tools such as would be required 
in their mining operations, and, on Floyd's advice, 
he included a number of gimcracks and gewgaws 
for trading with the Aborigines on the voyage 
through the interior of Alaska. 

Long Tom had attended to fitting the boat for 
the voyage. His standing and running rigging, 
together with the sails, were all in place. At 
twelve o'clock he came to Pete and Kennedy, who 
were standing on the quarter deck, and touching his 
hat respectfully in his formal British style, re- 
ported : 

“All ready to break anchor, sir !" 

Pete beckoned to Floyd, his father, and Scotch 


Captain Pete in Alaska 55 

Jimmy, who were in the bow, and when all were 
assembled, said: 

''One thing remains to be done. This boat has 
got to be re-christened.’’ At this point Kennedy 
winked violently at Joe Floyd, whose eye he hap- 
pened to catch. Joe looked puzzled, but Pete con- 
tinued : "Pm going to turn the Gamecock into the 
Grade, and Pve got a bottle of champagne down 
in the cabin that Pm going to use for the baptism.” 

He darted below, and returned with a quart bot- 
tle of Clicquot. They all followed him to the bow, 
and he clambered out on the sprit. 

"Here’s good luck to the Grade and her crew!” 
he said. 

He cracked the bottle on the stem of the boat, 
and they all took off their hats. 


CHAPTER VI 


THROUGH THE INSIDE PASSAGE 

CLOYD went ashore during the afternoon to 
^ receive Ah Fat's report. It confirmed what 
Kennedy had learned about Lee Sing, with the ad- 
dition that he had brought with him from China 
several desperadoes who had been members of his 
piratical crew. These men were supposed to be at 
the beck of the pseudo Celestial merchant whenever 
he needed them in the unlawful enterprises in which 
he was known to engage. Ah Fat also said Lee 
Sing had confederates among the lower class of 
criminal whites who peopled the slums of Victoria. 

Before dark, Pete had a surprise. An incoming 
steamer brought Mr. Hagan from Cortesana. 
The old real estate dealer was attired in an absurd 
British touring suit, and wore a striped fore-and- 
after cap which took twenty years off his age, and 
gave him a rakish appearance at variance with his 
real character. He explained that he only came to 
see the boy off, and went over the clearance papers 
with anxious care. Pete had not failed to attend 
to this point. He had also hunted up an old mari- 
ner who had sailed on the northern route to Sitka 
many years, and was familiar with the waters of 

56 


Captain Pete in Alaska 57 

the Inland Passage. This man laid out a course 
for him to follow, and said that with good seaman- 
ship they should be able to reach Sitka in six days. 

In the early afternoon all the preparations were 
concluded and Pete, whom Kennedy insisted should 
be in command of the expedition, announced that 
they were ready to sail. Mr. Hagan and the fisher- 
man, after warm adieus, took their departure on 
the four o’clock boat. 

Three hours after, the crew of the Grade tore 
her anchor from the mud bottom of the Arm, and 
headed out through the strait of Haro through 
narrow Active Pass into the straits of Georgia. 
They had steam up, and caught a fair tide, running 
at least six knots, and churned along at a merry 
rate into the entrance of that wonderful passage 
which extends with hardly a break from Victoria 
to Sitka. Many books have been published giving 
descriptions of this unparalleled voyage, but al- 
though all are enthusiastic, few have succeeded in 
giving any real idea of the difficulties of navigation, 
and the astounding scenery of the voyage. 

Since Pete and his companions fared forth on 
their adventurous trip, it has become a world thor- 
oughfare. As sagacious old Mr. Hagan predicted, 
the news of Blondin’s discovery was afterwards 
wafted to the four quarters of the earth, and a 
stream of gold seekers, not only from America, but 
from Europe, and even from Australia in the 
Antipodes, hurried eagerly to the spot where 


58 Captain Pete in Alaska 

gold was as plentiful as the pebbles in the streams. 

The Grade had a covered wheel-house at the 
stern, and when they were fairly away Pete assem- 
bled his ship’s crew in this little apartment. Ken- 
nedy, Floyd and Long Tom lined up. Scotch 
Jimmy was at the wheel. Captain Pete announced 
that it was customary for the commanding officer 
to preach a sermon to his crew at the beginning of 
the voyage, and he was going to begin that way : 

‘Tn the first place,” he said. ‘Tt is unnecessary 
to have any class distinction in this company. For 
instance, I do not see why we should not eat at the 
same table, and the same kind of grub. It will be 
necessary, of course, to form ourselves into two 
watches. Each member of the crew shall have his 
especial line of duty, for the execution of which he 
must consider himself responsible. Jimmy, you’ve 
got to take charge of the galley, and be the cook. 
It is an important place, and if you don’t treat us 
well, you’re apt to get into trouble.” 

''You bet your life,” confirmed Kennedy. 

"Tom Long,” proceeded Pete, "I guess you’re the 
most competent sailor among us, and I appoint you 
chief deck hand, and fireman in emergency — when 
we are using the engine. What kind of a sailor 
man are you, Joe?” he asked, turning to Floyd. 

The big man said meditatively : 

"I reckon I can handle a canoe or even a row 
boat as well as the next, but I confess I ain’t much 


Captain Pete in Alaska 59 

on these big craft. When it comes down to the 
weather, though, Pm a regular old barometer.^' 

‘^All right,’' said Pete, “you shall be second deck 
hand, and have charge of the weather bureau. 
Now, Captain Kennedy, you are to be the military 
chief of the campaign. You must look after the 
weapons and ammunition, and when war is de- 
clared, you’ll have to take charge. I myself will 
be responsible for the stores, and the handling of 
the Grade generally. I guess there’s enough to 
keep us all out of mischief. Has anybody any sug- 
gestions to make ?” 

Long Tom raised his head as if about to speak, 
but Kennedy took the words out of his mouth. 

“You’ve left out the engineer,” exclaimed he. 

“Of course,” responded Pete. “I will be chief 
engineer in addition to the rest of my duties. I’ve 
knocked about machinery a bit, and I understand 
this engine. I am confident I can even mend it if 
it breaks down. If any accident happens, I have 
little doubt of my ability to put things straight 
again.” 

“Then that seems to settle it,” said Kennedy, 
looking around to the others. 

All nodded silently, and Pete continued : 

“It would be a good plan if we established a 
regular four hour watch and watch, and keep it 
up to the end of the voyage. If Kennedy and Long 
will take the starboard, Floyd and Jimmy can form 


6o 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

the port watch. I will help either one when needed, 
and promise Pll not take advantage of having the 
soft end of the job.’' 

They all laughed, knowing he would work fully 
as hard, if not harder, than any other member of 
the crew. Pete looked at his timepiece, leaned 
over, and tapped the bell in front of him like this : 

Tap-tap, tap-tap! 

‘‘Six o’clock in the dog watch,” he announced. 
“At eight bells — eight o’clock, Cap — ^you call the 
port watch to relieve you. They will go oif at mid- 
night, and so alternate throughout the day until 
eight bells at four o’clock in the afternoon. Then 
will come the dog watches, which are only two 
hours, and split up the day so that each watch gets 
the eight hour night duty every other twenty-four 
hours.” 

Long Tom nodded his head in great satisfaction, 
and said respectfully : 

“That’s ship-shape, sir !” 

A fresh southeast breeze had sprung up as they 
got clear of Active Pass and Pete set sail and 
steered west northwest through the darkness. It 
was a clear night and they could see in the distance 
the reflections of the electric lights of Vancouver, 
British Columbia, vibrating on the sky. The 
Grade behaved well under canvas, and when Long 
Tom had belayed his sheets, the little vessel sprang 
ahead like a live thing. Long had cut and fitted 
the canvas with the skill of a nautical expert. The 


Captain Pete in Alaska 6i 

spars were properly set and braced, and the stand- 
ing and running rigging gave evidence of being 
just what was required. After a little the others 
saw Pete softly clap the palm of his hand on the 
rail against which he was leaning. 

‘'It's all right !" he said with a smile of satisfac- 
tion. “She is going to sail like a witch, and be as 
easy to handle as a cat boat. Pm going to shut 
off steam now. But, Tom," he added, “I want you 
to bank the fire, and be ready to get a full head of 
steam any moment. We must keep everything 
prepared, in case of emergency. I understand, 
while there is little danger from wind in this inland 
Alaskan passage, that we are liable to get into cur- 
rents where we may need power the worst way in 
a hurry." 

“Aye, aye, sir!" said Long Tom. 

“I've heard some of Seymour Narrows," drawled 
Joe Floyd. “I know'd a feller that went through. 
He said there was always a ripsnorting current 
there, and that at ebb and flood tide it was a regu- 
lar whirlygig of a maelstrom. He claimed that at 
low tide the rocks stuck out of the water like the 
hairs on a cat struck by lightning." 

“That's all sure as you're born, Joe!" returned 
Pete. “My sailing directions say just that, and the 
passage should be made when the tide is full. The 
United States steamer Saranac was wrecked here 
in '75, and a number of smaller vessels since. We 
will make Cape Mudge at the entrance of Discovery 


62 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Passage about daylight to-morrow morning. 
That’s eighteen miles from the Narrows. This 
Passage is a mile wide, but it contracts to one-third 
of a mile in the Narrows. I reckon we’ll get 
through. Good night. Keep her as she goes, 
Jimmy, and call me if the wind shifts, Tom.” He 
went below. 

When the ‘"doctor,” as the rest had dubbed 
Jimmy since his appointment as cook, announced 
that breakfast was ready the next morning, the 
Grade had nearly reached the mouth of the Nar- 
rows. Pete had taken precaution to have a full 
head of steam on the engine. Long Tom took the 
wheel, and our young captain told Floyd to stand 
by in the wheel-house, in case the sailor needed as- 
sistance. Pete did not intend any accident should 
occur, if caution and care could prevent it. 

Now the waters began to boil. In the narrow 
strait in front the flood tide, which they had caught, 
was racing through the channel in a mass of raging 
foam at the rate of ten knots an hour. Once 
fairly inside, the whirling cauldron caught the little 
vessel, and tossed it about like a chip on the edge 
of Niagara Falls. Fortunately, Long Tom was a 
clever helmsman, but the sudden and unexpected 
cross currents that caught the Graders bow as they 
neared the Ripple Rock in the middle and sent her 
in all sorts of unexpected directions, tested his skill 
to the utmost. He would suddenly whirl the wheel 
to hard-a-starboard, and the next moment madly 


Captain Pete in Alaska 63 

revolve the spokes until he had it almost as far 
a-port. It took all the strength the sturdy fellow 
possessed, and the muscles stood out on his bare 
arms. Joe took hold on the lee side of the wheel, 
and together they succeeded in maintaining con- 
trol. Pete stood on the bow, and Kennedy amid- 
ships. Wherever the boy's alert eye saw a chance 
to con the boat through a less turbulent streak of 
water, he called his directions, and Kennedy passed 
the word promptly on to the steersman. It was an 
anxious time, and when the tide suddenly slacked 
before it began running in the opposite direction, 
they all felt their hearts beat more tranquilly. Be- 
fore it began again they passed out of the Narrows 
into the broader and quieter waters beyond. They 
rounded Chatham Point sharply on the port hand, 
and laid a southwest course along Johnstone Strait. 

“Cap," said Pete to Kennedy, as they stood to- 
gether gazing at the lofty mountain walls, “that 
passage through the Narrows was about as good a 
test of the Grade and her crew as we could have. 
The boat's a bully one, all fight, and I hardly see 
how the ship's company could be improved upon." 

“Right you are," agreed Kennedy. “It's a good 
thing to have an experience like that to shake us 
down in the beginning. I suppose it's about as 
tough as anything we will get, ain't it?" 

“Yes," replied Pete. “As far as the Inland Pas- 
sage goes. When we have to strike out of sight of 
land, and get in the Bering Sea, the Lord knows 


64 Captain Pete in Alaska 

what we’ll meet with. There isn’t any doubt it 
will take all our seamanship to put us through. I 
don’t think we’ll have any more trouble until we get 
in the Bering Sea. There we’re liable to get nipped 
in the ice up to the middle of July. And, accord- 
ing to my calculations, it’s important that we get 
into the Yukon River by that time. However, 
we’ll do the best we can.” 

‘‘And no one can do more,” concluded Kennedy. 

Now they settled down to regular sailing vessel 
routine. Pete was determined to economize fuel, 
and did not mind going leisurely during this por- 
tion of the voyage. They found good navigation 
to Ella Point, but on entering Broughton Strait 
the wind began to draw ahead. The tide had been 
in their favor, but as they opened up Alert Bay on 
Cormorant Island it turned against them. Pete 
saw a little cluster of houses on the shore of the 
bay, and came to an anchor in front of them. They 
went ashore and found there was a post office, and 
cannery in the village and dozens of grotesque 
totem poles. Pete left a letter for Grace, but with- 
out any expectation that it would be promptly for- 
warded. 

As they proceeded along the north channel of 
Queen Charlotte Sound the next morning, Kennedy 
and Joe speculated as to the probability that Lee 
Sing would, if he had interpreted Blondin’s sketch 
and notes, fit out an expedition with the same pur- 
pose they had in view. Joe thought if the China- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 65 

man took up the matter, his boat would be more or 
less apt to overtake the Grade before she left Sitka. 

‘‘For,” he said, “those Chinks are all sailor men, 
and they would follow us close. They will likely 
have a sailing vessel for I don’t suppose they know 
much about steam. If they come at all they’re apt 
to make the trip in one of them handy, little sealing 
schooners.” 

Pete was impressed with this idea. 

“Yes,” he said, “and if they do, it will be in our 
favor to have steam power when the trouble comes, 
as it’s bound to sooner or later.” 

“I don’t see,” said Kennedy who was listening 
attentively, “why it wouldn’t be the best plan 
when we get a little further north to ambush these 
Chinks, and shoot them up. It would save trouble 
in the end and they say — 

“ * There’s never a law of God or Man 
Holds north of fifty-three.’” 

Pete and Joe both laughed. 

“You’re some bloodthirsty!” commented Joe look- 
ing at the ex-revenue man rather admiringly. 

“I’m not sure he’s not right, for all that,” Pete 
said. 

“Well,” concluded Kennedy as he started below. 
“I’m going to keep the arsenal in good shape any- 
how. If those fellows heave in sight. I’ll have 
plenty of lead to throw at them.” 

Towards the end of the afternoon the wind grew 


66 Captain Pete in Alaska 

almost to the proportions of a gale and hurried them 
along through the murk, for a foggy drizzle had 
now set in, faster than Pete cared to go, but later 
on he picked up Egg Island Light on his starboard 
bow. This told him where he was, and he shaped 
his course up Fitzhugh Sound. The wind was 
growing worse, and the young navigator thought it 
wise to put in at Whirlwind Bay about midnight. 
There is a little place supporting a fish cannery 
here, called Namu Harbor. The bay lies between 
Sunday and Clam Islands. 

At daybreak the next morning they started across 
Fitzhugh Sound, and at Pointer Island Lighthouse, 
entered Lama Passage. The scenery was superb. 
Kennedy had travelled through Switzerland as a 
young man, but had never seen anything there to 
compare with it. Deer were frequently seen swim- 
ming from island to island, and Jimmy the cook, 
who was afraid of getting out of fresh meat, im- 
plored Captain Pete to capture one of the animals 
so as to replenish his rapidly diminishing supply. 
Shortly after a noble buck with branching horns 
came out on the shore of an island and started to 
swim to the opposite beach. The passage was about 
half a mile wide and when the animal was well out 
in the water, they pointed the bow of the Grade so 
as to head it off. The buck turned and tried to 
reach the shore again, but was overtaken, and Tom 
Long cleverly dropped a running bowline over the 
antlers. As they hauled it over the side, Joe Floyd 


6 ; 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

drew the edge of his hunting knife across the quar- 
ry’s throat. The whole proceeding keenly inter- 
ested Dope, but he disdained to take any part in the 
capture, and viewed it dispassionately. 


s 


CHAPTER VII 

THE CAPTAIN AND MATE OF THE DRAGON^S FANG 

A S they sailed north the Grade's route was con- 
tinually more picturesque and interesting. It 
seemed an endless channel of labyrinthian passages 
winding through ribbons of water between defiles 
in the mountains which rose hundreds of feet high 
on both sides of them, and cast their shadows far 
out on the flood. Dense forests of fir covered the 
mountain sides, and were mirrored in the tranquil 
sheet of silver below. The passages were often so 
tortuous and irregular that they seemed a succes- 
sion of lakes, and the boat would appear to be run- 
ning headlong into a bluff when a sudden turn 
would reveal a continuation of the pathway, and 
open up another outlet to a still more charming en- 
vironment. 

On through half-mile-wide Lama Passage past 
Bella Bella Indian village and graveyard, beauti- 
ful and aptly named, into Seaforth Channel and out 
again to Millbank Sound. A strong southwest 
wind was blowing, and although it was fair for the 
Grade it brought a heavy sea along with it, but she 
was a good heavy weather boat and only danced 
merrily along faster without shipping any water. 
68 


Captain Pete in Alaska 69 

In the afternoon they passed Ivory Island Light- 
house and came to Finlayson Channel. 

''Here’s more trouble coming,” said the boy cap- 
tain to Kennedy and Floyd. 

They had both become so confident of his ability 
to navigate the Grade that his announcement gave 
them no uneasiness. 

"I reckon you’ll pull us through, as the rooster 
said when the fox caught him in the crack of the 
chicken house door.” Floyd made this statement. 

"What’s the size and shape of it?” inquired the 
ex-revenue man with more curiosity than anxiety. 

"Why,” answered Pete, "here’s the dark coming 
on, and there’s the entrance to Hiekish Narrows 
three miles ofif. It’s a dicky place to go through in 
broad day light.” 

"What’s the matter with it?” asked Kennedy. 

"Strong current, tide rips, and eddies, and Hewitt 
Rock right about the middle.” 

"How the deuce did you manage to find out all 
these things!” exclaimed the revenue man, with 
wonder in his face. 

"Studied my sailing directions,” replied Pete, 
carelessly. 

"Everybody kin do little things like that,” Floyd 
said with an amused twinkle to Kennedy, and the 
other answered indignantly : 

"Oh, yes I it’s all mighty easy ! But it gets me.” 

Nevertheless they did pass the dangerous nar- 
rows as the last rays of the sun were fading out of 


70 Captain Pete in Alaska 

the sky, and worked up through Graham Reach into 
Swanson’s Bay about midnight. They were tired 
with the strain of the day, and let go the anchor. 
There we will leave them for the night while the 
reader goes back to Victoria, where events are oc- 
curring that vitally concern the fortunes of the ‘‘Yel- 
lowbird Gold Mining Company.” 

The Chinese Colony of the capital of British Co- 
lumbia was populous and busy. It did not com- 
pare in size with the celebrated one in San Fran- 
cisco, but its characteristics were the same. On a 
smaller scale its inner life was that which exists 
wherever this Oriental race gathers together in mu- 
nicipal existence. In Victoria the premises occu- 
pied by them was confined to two city blocks. The 
police sternly kept them from over-running their 
boundaries, though they rarely desired to dwell out- 
side the limits prescribed. To one unacquainted 
with their ways they seemed to herd together with- 
out distinction of class or worldly circumstance. 
Merchant and Coolie, rich man and poor one, vicious 
and reputable, all alike apparently dwelt in such 
proximity that an outsider could not draw the line 
which nevertheless divided them as immutably as 
caste keeps the Hindoos apart. Their dwellings 
consisted, so far as could be seen, of dingy, red brick 
buildings owned for the most part by prosperous 
English citizens who concerned themselves little as 
to what occurred on their premises while the ex- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 71 

ceedingly satisfactory rents were paid promptly on 
the first of every month. 

On the inside of those uninviting walls an inner 
life throbbed that was as different from anything 
that western civilization knows, as darkness from 
light. These bloused, pig-tailed pagans with their 
demure, sallow faces walked the streets, and even 
as household servants were in daily intimate asso- 
ciation with the whites of the city, but they were as 
little comprehended, and their lives less open to the 
understanding of the ruling race than are the Zulus 
in Africa. After all, the difference is racial, and 
the West and the East are so essentially distinct in 
character, temperament, and physical and mental 
habit that it is little surprising they differ in their 
standards of morals. 

Did the reader ever see a large rabbit burrow, or 
a prairie dog town,?^ Well, the inside of these two 
brick blocks of the Victoria Chinatown could, not 
inaptly, be compared to one of them. In the first 
place the Orientals had at their own expense built 
on the houses they inhabited — infested, I was about 
to say — in the rear. The space ordinarily reserved 
as yard or garden in civilized cities was completely 
covered over and built up. In many cases the prop- 
erty owners did not know of these improve- 
ments (?) on their domain, for the celestials paid 
their rent promptly, and in their leases invariably 
assumed the responsibility of keeping the property 
in repair, so there was no necessity, and in fact. 


72 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

hardly an excuse, for a visit from the owner. He 
received his rent — it was brought to him ; he did not 
even have to go for it — month after month and year 
after year, and why should he investigate so gratify- 
ing a condition of affairs. For such reasons the 
outside world left Chinatown at peace. 

On the evening of the first of May Lee Sing sat 
behind the counter of his tea store smoking a long- 
stemmed pipe. He put it down, and arose. Giving 
some directions in his native tongue to the sleek, 
black-haired, yellow-faced clerk who sat near, he 
passed into the hall at the back. Half way down he 
turned, and faced what was apparently the entrance 
to a dumb waiter shaft. He threw open the door, 
and touched a spring which loosened a trap that 
fell across the opening to the depths beneath. Then 
he entered, and closed the hall door behind him. 
On a little shelf on the wall of the shaft — or closet, 
as it became when the trap door was closed — was a 
small lamp, and he lighted the wick. Then he in- 
serted a key in an almost imperceptible hole in the 
opposite wall. There was a faint click, a door 
opened inwards, and he stepped forward into the 
secret passage disclosed by his light. 

The ex-pirate followed it past a number of doors 
until he had gone a hundred feet or more, and came 
to a stairway leading below. He continued his way 
far beneath the foundations of the building, and ap- 
parently to the other side of the block marking the 
boundary of the colony. Then he ascended another 


73 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

set of steps, the stairway seemingly a secret passage 
against the wall of the building, until he reached a 
large room at the top of the house. 

This . apartment was brilliantly lighted, but the 
outside iron shutters were drawn, and heavy cur- 
tains screened the light so that not the faintest ray 
penetrated to the outer world. The room was fur- 
nished with Oriental luxury. Heavy and costly 
silk hangings draped the walls, and divans were ar- 
ranged in groups on the gorgeous rugs that covered 
the floor. There were no chairs but beside each 
divan was a low table, and it was evident the place 
was an assembly or club room. 

Lee Sing reclined on one of the couches, and 
touched a gong that hung near with his pointed, 
yellow finger. 

A door opened in the further end of the room, and 
a man came toward Lee Sing. The new comer was 
of the coolie type, but he merits a few words of de- 
scription in as much as he will reappear in these 
pages. His features were grotesquely Mongolian. 
His eyes slanted so that they were almost perpen- 
dicularly set in his face. The nose was short and 
broad, the mouth wolfish, and the chin beneath long 
and heavy, and underhung like that of a fighting 
bull-dog. His low forehead was shaved back to the 
middle of the head, and his coarse black hair gath- 
ered in a carefully-braided queue so long that it fell 
below his waist. Massive gold rings hung in the 
torn lobes of his ears, and completed his barbaric 


74 Captain Pete in Alaska 

aspect. This gargoyle of a head was fitted on a 
pair of massive shoulders. His hairy, muscular, 
bare arms, and burly torso indicated that he pos- 
sessed herculean strength. To complete the figure 
he had the short bandy legs of a dwarf. 

‘Wong,'' said Lee Sing, (I am translating the 
Chinese dialect in which Lee Sing spoke into Eng- 
lish for the benefit of the reader) ‘T hear that made- 
over tug that lay in the Arm is no longer there. 
Did Scar-faced Take and Todd offer to ship on 
her ?" 

“They did, Highness," answered Wong, in a deep, 
unctuous voice that possessed a certain grating 
quality which made it so resonant that it carried like 
the clang of steel on steel. “They reported the 
vessel had taken out papers to go to Alaska; and 
the Master's name was Peter Graignic. Graignic 
considered their application to enroll in the ship's 
company, and told them to come again on the fourth, 
three days from now." 

The pirate captain nodded, and continued to in- 
terrogate Wong with inquiring eyes : 

“Yes, Highness," he responded to the insistent 
gaze, “there is more. Kennedy, the friend of 
French Blondin was in the company, for Jake saw 
him with Graignic. There were two others. A big 
man — a sailor I think — and a little one — a Scotch- 
man, who formerly worked with Kennedy." 

“It is good," said Lee Sing. After a moment’s 
thought he continued : “It is certain Kennedy was 



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75 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

told by the Frenchman that he had found the gold 
in Alaska, and they have arranged to go to the 
place and dig the rest of it. Luckily the French- 
man entered the sea of oblivion that night, and we 
have the chart of his discovery, and the gold he had 
already taken from the mine.” 

From the fold of his voluminous garment he pro- 
duced a thin, leather-covered blank book. He 
opened it and after turning several pages placed the 
long nail of his little finger upon a rude map. 

^'Blondin was a poor draftsman,” he mused, half 
to himself. *This long, heavy line is undoubtedly 
a river, and as it enters the Bering Sea near the 
point he has marked as St. M., it must be the father 
of waters — the great Yukon River of which I heard 
in Siberia.” 

Wong was peering over his captain’s shoulder, 
and following the finger nail as it traced the course 
of the river. His mouth opened eagerly, and dis- 
closed the serrated, yellow fangs of teeth. 

‘The gold is there! Highness,” he eagerly ex- 
claimed. “You recollect nuggets and dust were 
brought to us by the natives in Siberia.” 

“No doubt, Wong,” responded Lee Sing. “No 
doubt you are right. I’ve long believed gold is to 
be found in those bleak territories but” — and he 
displayed his teeth in a hyena smile — “we have al- 
ways been able to acquire the precious metal through 
easier methods than by digging for it like a son of 
the soil.” 


76 Captain Pete in Alaska 

'^Highness/’ said Wong. 'These men are going 
to find the spot the Frenchman knew, and dig the 
gold. Let us take a boat, and start in our old way. 
We have you and me, and Chow and Ah Tan of the 
old crew. It is not enough, but perhaps we can find 
others among our people here, or take with us Scar- 
faced Jake and Todd. The barbarians may serve 
our purposes during the voyage, and at the end 
there are ways to dispose of them.’’ 

A fiendish smile played on his lips, and was re- 
flected in the features of his former captain. 

'T am tempted,” said Lee Sing. "This life in a 
house tires my bones. I long to walk the reeling 
deck of my ship while the briny wind blows in my 
face. There seems nothing more to do in Victoria. 
W e only eat, and drink, and grow fat. The strong 
and clever Americans have put an end to our smug- 
gling game, and — in fact, Wong, you’re right, and 
we’ll get to sea again !” 

Wong leaped to his feet with a yell of exultation 
that rang through the room like a howl of a wild 
beast. Lee Sing smiled indulgently as he raised 
his hand to moderate the transport of his old fol- 
lower. 

"Hold yourself in. Old One!” he said, "you’re 
not out of sight of land yet.” Then with a change of 
manner to the stern authority of the pirate chief, he 
continued: "Notify Chow and Ah Tan, and look 
out for a craft that will suit. I think a sealing 
schooner will do. Pick out the best that is moored 


Captain Pete in Alaska 77 

in the stream. When we are ready we will take 
her in the night, throw the ship-keeper overboard, 
and hurrah! for the broad ocean and a life in the 
open.’’ 

‘What about Jake and Todd?” asked Wong. 

“Keep them in play. Bring of the best, and we 
will drink to the success of our voyage. Old Wong.” 

The man grinned with joy as he shuffled away on 
his errand. For many years these two men had 
been associated in crime. Both were desperate out- 
laws. Lee Sing was the keener spirit, and pos- 
sessed acuteness of intellect that made him the 
leader in their forays. Wong was his tool and a 
more serviceable one could not have been fitted to 
his hand. Ever since their first association he had 
been executive officer of his various ships, and as far 
as seamanship and daring went his superior could 
not be found. Imagine this pair of capable and un- 
scrupulous villains in the midst of a high civilization 
like that of the capital of British Columbia, cloaked 
by the entire ignorance of the western world of 
their criminal propensities. The two men were in- 
fernal machines loaded to the muzzle with deadly 
possibilities. 

Wong returned with a small, bulbous flask of 
green glass and two tiny goblets. He carefully ex- 
tracted a wad of cotton from the mouth of the 
flagon, and poured off the half inch of oil which had 
screened the precious liqueur from the ravages of 
the atmosphere. Then with steady hand he filled the 


78 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


drinking vessels to the brim. As the rich, oily 
liquid bubbled forth it filled the air with its spicy 
fragrance. They drank it slowly, and with the 
gusto of connoisseurs. Wong filled the glasses 
again until the flask was empty. The pirates’ eyes 
had grown brighter, and their dull cheeks were 
flushed as they continued the conversation. 

Wong, the self-indulgent old buccaneer, would 
have brought forth a second flask, but Lee Sing 
suddenly shook off the languor produced by the 
powerful spirit, and arose to his feet. 

‘"Wong,” he said, ''no more, old thief! We will 
have many a carouse in the future, but here we must 
restrain ourselves. And now to work at once ! No 
time is to be lost. Search among your friends, old 
warrior, and see if you can enlist three worthy re- 
cruits as members of the crew of the 'Dragon's 
Fang' " 

Wong stiffened in elation as he heard once more 
the name of the junk in which they had swept the 
coast of China until it was a terror to all who dwelt 
along the sea coast. 

Lee Sing again entered the alley way. He fol- 
lowed one of the other byways of this labyrinth 
traversing the whole block, and as commonly used 
and known to inhabitants of the colony as the street 
in front. Two men, coolies of the lower class, 
guarded the portal of an inner room before which 
he paused. They saluted the pirate chief, and threw 
the door wide for him to pass. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 79 

Within was a gambling den. The room was large 
and bare, and reeked with the fumes of opium. Two 
fan-tan tables at the upper end were surrounded by 
excited players reaching over one another’s shoul- 
ders four or five deep. Lee Sing’s appearance was 
evidently not unusual, for he nodded here and there 
as he made his wa}^to a table where higher play was 
going on. 

At this table only four or five men, whose attire 
betokened them to belong to the wealthier class, 
were playing. Lee Sing took a seat among them. 

When he arose an hour later he swept the mass 
of gold he had won into his pocket, and re-entered 
the alley way. This time he came out into a temple 
devoted to the homage of some heathen god. 
Shaven-headed priests knelt before the inner shrine, 
and one came out to the belated worshiper, and pre- 
sented him a wicker-work tray filled with small 
pieces of red paper printed with Chinese lettering in 
black and gold. Lee Sing took some of the squares, 
and gave a handful of gold to the priest. The lat- 
ter passed him a lighted stick of incense, and led 
him to the inside rail. He shortly emerged, and 
again entered the alley. This time his goal was an 
opium den of the higher class, one of several that 
existed in this colony. It was sumptuously fur- 
nished, and lighted by braziers in which the glow- 
ing charcoal was used for the cooking of the opium 
pills. Ornate bunks, one above the other, lined the 
walls of the various apartments, for this resort had 


8o 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


half a dozen rooms en suite. Most of the bunks 
were occupied by devotees of the drug, it being after 
midnight, and business was in full swing. Quick- 
footed, alert Celestials darted from customer to cus- 
tomer lighting the pipe, and handing them the pill 
of opium. 

Sad to relate, not only Chinese but white people 
were among the patrons of this den. Well dressed 
men from the outer world whose friends would have 
been horrified to know they possessed this perni- 
cious habit, reclined on the pillows, and inhaled the 
deadly drug into their lungs. It was here Lee Sing 
wound up his evening. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE GRACIE ARRIVES AT SITKA, AND WHAT SHE 
FOUND THERE 

/^N the morning of the second of June the Grade 
lay at Swanson’s Bay enveloped in a fog so 
thick that Floyd declared he could eat it. Pete 
had studied up the subject, and was explaining to 
his less well-informed companions : 

‘‘You see,” he said. “The Kuro Siwo is a cur- 
rent in the Pacific Ocean like the gulf stream of the 
Atlantic. It is really a warm river — burrowing 
through the colder water of the sea — that runs along 
the whole Pacific coast.” 

“Is that a Siwash name?” asked Kennedy. 

“No,” replied Pete with a smile. “Kuro Siwo is 
Japanese for Black Stream. This current modifies 
the climate of the whole Pacific coast, and keeps the 
mountain slopes green and the air balmy. The 
cold atmosphere from the land striking the hot 
water of this current makes these banks of vapor 
along the shores. It is unfortunate for navigators, 
but it preserves this country from the Arctic in- 
clemency which prevails north of Sitka, for at that 
point the benevolent Black Stream trends away from 
the coast of Alaska.” 


8i 


82 Captain Pete in Alaska 

The balance of the day the Grade lay gently toss- 
ing in the fog. After dinner Joe Floyd rigged up a 
fishing line, and tried his luck. He used a heavy 
sinker, and had scarcely allowed his bait to get ten 
feet below the surface of the water than the hook 
was suddenly seized. He struck, and started to 
haul in his victim. It was all he could do. The 
others gathered around as he lifted a magnificent 
black cod over the rail, and dropped it flapping at 
their feet. This started them all overhauling their 
fishing tackle, and they got to work. 

Captain Pete, who seemed to the rest to be a 
walking encyclopedia, knew a good deal about the 
finny inhabitants of these northern waters. He 
told them that salmon were perhaps more numerous 
here than anywhere in the known waters of the 
globe. Factories for canning this important food 
fish were being established, and Pete predicted that 
in the future the fisheries of Alaska would occupy 
a more important place in the world’s commerce 
than those of Norway, or the Hebrides and the 
North Atlantic. He said halibut, herring, cod, 
rock cod, and a hundred other species of fish 
abounded here in such quantity there seemed no end 
of them. These comparatively small fish were not 
all. Whales, of all kinds from the humpback to 
the great Tight’ whale; killers, grampuses, por- 
poises, seals, including the priceless fur-clothed 
one, sea otters and walruses, swarmed in the land- 
locked waters of the Alaskan archipelago. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 83 

Towards evening a slight breeze sprang up, and 
the blankets of fog began to lift, or roll in and mass 
against the shore. They got their anchor aboard 
and spread their canvas. As the Grade got under 
way Tom reported that a small craft was in sight 
astern, and bowling along with the increasing 
breeze as if it might overtake them. 

Captain Pete examined the sail in the distance 
with interest: 

''It's a small schooner!'' he announced to Ken- 
nedy and Joe. In a moment he added: “She's a 
smart sailor, and is well handled. They have 
spread every rag they can, and don't intend to lose 
any time in getting there." 

“Where?" asked Kennedy and Joe, simultane- 
ously. 

“Sitka, the first stage to the Yukon River." 

The words dropped slowly from Pete's mouth, 
and the revenue man and rancher looked at each 
other, and him significantly. 

“Do you suppose — " started Kennedy. 

“I wonder whether — " began Floyd. 

Pete took his binoculars from his eyes to wipe a 
blur from the glass, and turned to the others: 

“I am going to assume that every craft I see is 
the one Lee Sing and his crew of Chinamen are fol- 
lowing us in. We are only four days out of Vic- 
toria and have lain at anchor two nights. They 
must have started the day after and laid about the 
same course, but they banged right through without 


84 Captain Pete in Alaska 

stopping. They know we’re ahead of them, and are 
trying to catch up.” 

'T don’t see what they could do if they overtook 
us,” remarked Kennedy uneasily. 

‘They want to get to that placer ground first,” 
replied Pete. “And the lawless chaps might take 
it into their heads to put us out of the way to pre- 
vent us from forestalling them.” 

“You’re taking it mighty serious,” said Joe 
Floyd. “But I reckon it is the best way. If that 
fellow calculates to do any piratin’ on us though, I 
reckon he’ll have his hands full.” 

“The arsenal’s in good shape !” volunteered Ken- 
nedy. “I wish we’d had sense enough to mount a 
Gatling gun on the Grade'’ 

Pete seemed rather impressed by this suggestion, 
but he was again examining the craft behind them. 
He was making his way through the tortuous 
complexities of Fraser and McKay Reaches 
and before long he was certain the other boat was 
out-sailing the Grade, although the latter now had 
the full force of the wind the other brought up with 
her. He started his engine to work, and boomed 
ahead into Grenville Channel. This body of water 
is forty-five miles long, and from a half, to one mile 
wide. Serpent’s Waterfall on the west shore is 
one of the most striking sights of the inside trip. 
They gazed at it in wonder and admiration. A 
large stream zigzags from waterfall to waterfall 
down from the top of a mountain five thousand feet 


Captain Pete in Alaska 85 

high. The roar and clash of the turbulent stream 
is borne far out on the smooth waters of the Chan- 
nel. 

The youthful commander took a last glance at 
the schooner as it was shut out of sight by a head- 
land, and said, snapping his binoculars together : 

'T was going to lie over to-night at Stewart’s 
Anchorage near the end of this channel, but I guess 
I’ll keep right on past Watson’s Point Light. The 
engine isn’t working just right, and I’m afraid we’re 
in for trouble. I’d like to get to Dixon’s Entrance, 
that’s about fifty miles, before it comes on.” 

Kennedy and Joe nodded as if they thought he 
was right, but after all it was evident they consid- 
ered it up to him to shoulder the responsibility of 
deciding their course. What worried the young 
commander more than anything else was his engine. 
Something was wrong, or becoming wrong with 
it, and he could not locate the trouble. He passed 
Lawyer’s Island Lighthouse on Arthur Passage in 
the afternoon and worked on, the Graders engine 
becoming more refractory all the time, through 
Malacca Passage keeping a northwest course. To 
add to his perplexities the wind, which had been on 
their beam, now hauled ahead and blew strongly 
from the north, northeast. This forced him to de- 
pend entirely on steam if he headed up to his course. 

At dark the wind had increased to a gale which 
tossed the little boat around in so lively a way that 
it made the gold hunters uncomfortable for the first 


86 Captain Pete in Alaska 

time since leaving Victoria. Captain Pete looked 
rather serious as he paced the deck forward. He 
was hardly making headway, and the only comfort- 
ing reflection with which he could cheer his mind 
was that the pursuing schooner had been dropped 
out of sight behind for some hours. As he turned 
over the Grade's position in his mind, and tried to 
decide on the best course to pursue, a violent snort 
of escaping steam came from the engine room ac- 
companied by a wrenching clatter. 

He leaped through the clouds of scalding vapor 
to the boiler, and shut off the power. By the time 
the others had gathered around — which they did in 
a hurry, with the exception of Tom Long who stuck 
to the wheel — he discovered that his cylinder head 
had blown out, and that the vessel was momentarily 
helpless as far as the engine was concerned. He 
came on deck again, and stood for a moment, the 
rest watching him in silence ready to execute his 
commands. He cast a rapid eye to the windward, 
and stepped into the wheel house to consult his 
chart. 

“Tom,’’ he said to Long. “The cylinder head 
has blown out. I think I can tinker it up when I 
have time, but now we’re fighting a headwind, and 
it is useless to bother with it for the present. I am 
going to bear away to the westerly which will make 
a fair wind of it, and try and make Cape Muzon on 
the south end of Dale Island. Can we do it?” 

“How far is it, sir?” inquired Tom. 


87 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

''Only seventy-five or eighty miles/' 

"Certainly, sir!" he answered confidently. 
"She'll do it easy. And I think we'll find smoother 
water if the wind holds, as we'll draw in under the 
land." 

"All right 1" said the young navigator, confirmed 
in his own opinion. "Let Jimmy take the wheel, 
and get the canvas on her.” 

All hands took part in setting sail under Pete's 
and Long Tom's directions, and the Grade was 
soon bowling along at six or seven knots an hour. 
The little tug made very good weather of it, and did 
not dance so much as when she was under steam. 
The wind continued steady in the northeast as they 
plunged through the darkness. 

Pete would not turn in. He left Long in charge 
of the deck as soon as the motion of the vessel be- 
came less pronounced, and shut himself in the en- 
gine room. He was only an amateur machinist, 
but he knew the function of every valve and bolt on 
the engine. He found that his problem was by no 
means an easy one, but he studied over it until he 
finally thought he could replace the head that had 
blown oflf and secure it so firmly that it would an- 
swer all ordinary purposes, and at any rate last until 
he could get hold of a regular machinist. Having 
reached this conclusion, he turned in, and slept like 
one of the Seven Sleepers, for he was completely 
tired out. 

When Captain Pete came on deck the next morn- 


88 Captain Pete in Alaska 

ing it was seven o’clock. His exhaustion had made 
him sleep longer than he intended and the others, 
knowing how much he needed the rest, would not 
awaken him. Cape Muzon was behind them, the 
wind had diminished, and the Grade was going 
through the smooth water like a duck in a mill pond. 
Jimmy brought him a thick, juicy, venison steak 
from the deer they had lassoed two days before, and 
he made a hearty breakfast. As soon as his hunger 
was satisfied, he looked up his position on the chart 
and held a consultation with Tom Long. He was 
going below to wrestle with the problem of that 
cylinder head, and he wished to be uninterrupted. 
He directed Long to haul up on a north, northwest 
course after passing Forrester and Lowrie Islands, 
and bear away for the sixty mile run to Coronation 
Island. 

Pete started to work at his engine. Unfortu- 
nately he could not find any bolts of the size he 
wanted to use in securing the iron plate in its posi- 
tion again, but he managed by the strenuous use of 
files, and die cutters to finally manufacture what 
would serve his purpose in default of better. After 
several hours labor he finally completed his task, 
and although he decided that it would be just as 
well not to carry a very heavy head of steam, he was 
satisfied his job would withstand ordinary pressure. 

As he was washing the grime from his hands, 
Tom Long called him on deck. The Grade was 
crossing the mouth of Christian Sound, having 


Captain Pete in Alaska 89 

passed Coronation. The wind had hauled to the 
north and was blowing half a gale. It was only 
about twenty-five miles to Cape Ommaney on the 
south end of Baranoff, and Pete decided to keep 
ahead under canvas, although he was now prepared 
to get steam up if it proved necessary. He had 
not a large reserve of coal and although he was now 
less than a hundred miles from Sitka, he knew that 
in the labyrinthian maze of islands, reefs, and chan- 
nels on the south side of Sitka Sound, he was liable 
to need every pound. 

Nevertheless Pete felt pretty happy, for the first 
stage of his journey to the Yukon was almost 
reached. It was not until he passed Whale Bay 
(thirty-five miles from Cape Ommaney) that he 
needed to start the engine, and he worked through 
until he sighted the truncated top of Mt. Edge- 
combe. He got this to bear northwest, half north 
on the starboard bow. When Biorka Island was 
bearing northeast, he pointed the Grade's head 
north by east. Ten miles of this brought him to 
mid channel between Vitskari and Kulichkof Rocks. 
Then he steered northeast with the buoys on Simp- 
son and Tsaritsa Rocks on the port bow, hauled, 
westward around the Twins and headed for Sitka 
wharf. 

''As pretty a course as I ever see sailed by the 
British Hadmiral!’’ said Long Tom. 

A little schooner lay moored to the wharf in front 
of them. 


90 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

''By the Hood of the Cobra exclaimed Kennedy. 
"It’s the one we saw, and she got ahead of us in the 
night.’’ 

Pete nodded, and Joe Floyd who was with the 
other two, said : 

"Say, Cap ! bring the Grade up close to that chap. 
I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the crew.” 

Pete signaled to Long Tom, who was at the 
wheel, to keep her off, and five minutes afterwards 
they tied within a hundred feet of where the 
stranger was swinging. 

It must be remembered that Long Tom the 
sailor, and Jimmy the Scotch cook, knew nothing of 
the ultimate intention of the voyage, or the hazards 
they were liable to encounter in its prosecution. 
The strange craft did not interest them to the same 
extent as the others, and they went uninterestedly 
about their duties. 

After a closer look at the schooner’s deck our 
three adventurers unconsciously drew together at 
the rail: 

"You see?” breathed Pete. "Those two deck 
hands are Chinamen !” 

The other two nodded silently. A third man 
came out of the little scuttle on the flush deck. He 
was evidently in authority, for he gave an order to 
one of the sailors. In a moment a fourth China- 
man emerged from the hold. Floyd started, and 
gazed intently. The others saw someLhing of in- 
terest was afoot, and looked at him inquiringly. 


91 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

The officer could be plainly seen, and this is what 
he looked like. ‘‘His features were grotesquely 
Mongolian. His eyes slanted so they were almost 
perpendicularly set in his face. The nose was short 
and broad ; the mouth wolfish, and the chin beneath 
long and heavy, and underhung like that of a fight- 
ing bull dog. . . . Massive gold rings in the 

torn lobes of his ears completed his barbaric aspect. 
This gargoyle of a head was fitted on a pair of mas- 
sive shoulders . . . and burly torso indicated 
herculean strength. . . . He had the short 
bandy legs of a dwarf.” 

It was not this uninviting specimen of humanity 
however, that had attracted Floyd’s attention, and 
seemingly petrified him with astonishment. It was 
the man who had joined the two members of the 
crew forward. He was a strongly-built coolie, and 
if there was anything noticeable about him it was 
that he looked less objectionable than the rest. The 
distance between the vessels was so small con- 
versation was audible from one to the other. 
In a moment “Bandylegs” spoke again, and 
this time as the third sailor started in answer to 
the command Floyd distinguished the name of Ah 
Fat. 

“That settles it!” said he softly to his compan- 
ions. “I don’t know whether I’m a foot or a horse- 
back I” 

Pete aiiu Kennedy had by this time caught on to 
the new development. 


92 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


“Is that your friend for sure?’’ inquired Kennedy 
with something like a sneer in his voice. 

Joe and Pete both recognized the suggestion im- 
plied by Kennedy, but neither of them were so ready 
to interpret Ah Fat’s presence on board the other 
craft as an evidence of treachery. Pete covertly 
watched the expression of the giant rancher’s face. 
Joe was undoubtedly thunderstruck at the appear- 
ance of his friend in the pirate crew, but he was a 
man oF rare good judgment, and little inclined to 
question a conclusion he had once definitely arrived 
at. He was thinking deeply. In fact during that 
moment he went over the whole time of his ac- 
quaintance — an interval of ten or twelve years — 
with Ah Fat, and he could not recall one instance 
where his Celestial friend’s faith and loyalty were 
to be questioned. He lifted his head, and looked 
Pete squarely into the eyes : 

“It’s Ah Fat, sure enough!” he affirmed, “and 
what he’s doing there I can’t imagine, but by the 
Great Horn Spoon 1” — the rancher never used this 
imprecation save in moments of excitement — “he 
ain’t among them for nothing wrong. And he’s 
too smart not to know the crowd, and what they’re 
after. Captain Pete, we've got a friend in the 
enemy's camp!" 

Kennedy looked discontented and doubtful, but 
Pete had strong reliance in the sagacity of Floyd, 
and was inclined to agree with the rancher’s con- 
clusion. 


93 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘‘Well/' he said. “Time will tell. It may prove 
a mighty handy thing if what you surmise is true. 
At any rate we'll act on that assumption until we 
find out to the contrary." 

Floyd and Pete shortly went ashore. It was 
thought advisable one of the three should remain 
aboard the Grade during their proximity to the 
strange craft. As they passed the schooner's stern, 
Joe pointed with his finger. Pete looked up, and 
read — 

“The Dragon's Fang." 

The name was in English lettering, but sur- 
rounded by a crimson Chinese scroll of which they 
did not know the significance. Pete's sharp eyes 
detected that the name was inscribed on a board at- 
tached to the outer skin of the sealing schooner in- 
stead of being in raised letters on the vessel itself, as 
was customary. Possibly the board covered some 
former name inscribed beneath. 


CHAPTER IX 


AN INVITATION TO AN ORIENTAL DINNER — WONG 
AND DOPE GET MIXED 

OLEEPY Sitka! Though pre-occupied with the 
^ problem presented to them by the Dragon's 
Fang the more intelligent of our little company of 
adventurers are beginning to realize that their quest 
has brought them to a remarkable spot. Sitka has 
been compared with Naples, but those who have 
seen both claim the latter is inferior in all that goes 
to make up an ideal human dwelling place. The 
little, old, Russian settlement hardly disturbed by 
American innovation, is indeed sleepy, but the 
frame of the picture is magnificent, stupendous, ma- 
jestic, tremendous. The city and bay lie in front 
of a battlement of snow-clad volcanic peaks rearing 
heads stained with broad crimson ridges of har- 
dened lava far into the blue sky. The town occupies 
the curve of a crescent, and the placid bay in front is 
sprinkled with dots of islands crowned with rough- 
haired firs casting their shadows on the water. 

Pete and Joe Floyd and Kennedy saw all this, 
and absorbed it. Long Tom and Jimmy cast a 
careless glance about, and became interested in the 
Indians that thronged the dock, and the log castle 
94 


95 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

that crowned the height at the back. Captain Pete 
also had his eye on this castle, and determined to 
see it close at hand before the Grade continued her 
voyage. He knew that in this noble, barbaric 
structure would be found interesting traces of the 
earliest Russian civilization in America. 

Events quickly happened, however, which drove 
admiration of the scenery and intention of historical 
research out of Pete’s mind. Shortly after their 
return on board, the Grade adventurers saw Cap- 
tain Lee Sing standing, an imposing figure in his 
flowing Oriental garb, on the quarter deck of the 
Dragon's Fang. He waved his hand in a sweep- 
ing, courteous gesture to Pete, and as the latter re- 
sponded, Lee Sing stepped on the string-piece of the 
wharf, and walked down abreast of the converted 
tug. His English was singularly pure for an 
Oriental. 

'‘You’ve a smart craft, sir. I am Captain Lee 
Sing out of Victoria, and bound north to the Si- 
berian shore for trade and sealing.” 

In his secret mind Pete reflected it was possibly 
lucky for the pirate there was no telegraphic com- 
munication between Victoria and Sitka. He was 
certain Lee Sing had stolen the Dragon's Fang. 
He showed no trace of his thought, but answered 
with an impassive face: 

"Glad to meet you. Captain, this is the Grade, 
and I am Captain Graignic. Also bound on a 
trading voyage.” 


g6 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Pete met him in the waist as he stepped aboard, 
and they shook hands with bluff cordiality which 
rather grated on Kennedy. Dope, who was sitting 
beside Joe Floyd — the mastiff had adopted the 
rancher as second best, and gave him all the time 
he could spare from his master — sniffed uneasily. 
Then he whimpered, and padded over to his master 
and Lee Sing. Joe looked on with an interested 
smile in his keen blue eyes. Pete said carelessly to 
the other: 

''My dog. Captain,’’ as if introducing him. 

He was careful, however, not to address Dope, 
for he did not wish to confuse the intelligent ani- 
mal’s instinct. The Chinaman gazed at the mas- 
tiff with interest, and stood apparently at ease as 
the great dog began to make certain investigations 
required by the occasion. He gravely sniffed the 
stranger’s heel and ran his investigating nose up 
the Celestial leg to the knee. Then he turned to 
his master. Rearing to his full height he placed 
his paws on Pete’s shoulders. While in this posi- 
tion he repeated the uneasy whimper he had given 
at first, and followed it with an unmistakable men- 
acing growl. 

Pete and Floyd understood the dog as plainly as 
if he had spoken his suspicions into their ears. The 
Chinaman possibly did not comprehend that Dope 
was warning his master of intangible treachery in 
the air, and wondering why he should be permitted 
to condone unworthiness in the person of the 


97 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

strangely-apparelled intruder. Pete smiled when 
he caught Joe’s eye, and patted the dog’s head as he 
pushed him aside. 

Kennedy and Floyd were presented to the visitor 
as partners in the trading venture, and the China- 
man promptly said : 

‘‘I know Captain Kennedy, and if I’m not mis- 
taken he knows me.” He laughed and continued: 
‘‘You nearly caught me smuggling once or twice. 
Captain Kennedy, but that’s a vice our nation can- 
not refrain from. Now that you are out the cus- 
toms service, and we meet on the open sea, I will 
acknowledge that my tea business in Victoria was 
only a cloak for the contraband trade I carried on. 
Smuggling is not considered wrong, or unworthy 
by my race. In my younger days I was a sailor, 
and captain of a junk at home. I’m glad to be on 
the salt water again instead of mewed up in a store. 
I can breathe more freely.” 

His manner was so free from offense that, if it 
had not been for their actual knowledge of the 
criminal career and evil intentions of the man be- 
fore them, they would have been inclined to accept 
him for what he pretended to be. Dope, however, 
continued to regard him from Floyd’s side, where 
he had retreated, with a hostile eye. In the inter- 
view that followed, the Chinaman stated that he 
and his mate Wong, whom he pointed out on the 
deck of the Dragons Fang, had many years before 
made a trip to Siberian Russia, and been impressed 


98 Captain Pete in Alaska 

with the lucrative possibility of the fur trade with 
the nomad natives of the northern tribes. Lee Sing 
was a diplomat of no mean ability, and told his story 
with cordial plausibility that made it difficult for 
the others not to accept him for what he presented 
himself. He invited our three friends to join him 
the next day at dinner, promising to give them an 
Oriental meal. Pete accepted for himself, and his 
friends with some misgiving. 

After their visitor had returned to the Dragon's 
Fang our three adventurers regarded one another 
with doubtful faces. Lee Sing had left them in a 
different frame of mind from the one in which he 
found them. Kennedy was the first to speak: 

''By the Mammoth’s Tusk!” he burst out, "If I 
didn’t almost know that Chinaman’s hands are red 
with Blondin’s blood I’d think he was a decent chap. 
He’s different from the oily. Celestial tea dealer of 
Victoria, as chalk is from cheese.” 

"He’s a remarkable man,” mused Pete. "And I 
find it difficult to believe he has not some good in 
him at the bottom. Perhaps that repulsive-looking, 
bandy-legged, reprobate of a mate of his is the in- 
stigator of this trip, and the assassin of the French- 
man.” 

Joe Floyd shook his head : 

"I stand by Dope! The smooth Chinese pirate 
can’t fool us, old boy, can he ?” 

He pulled the dog’s silken ear, and Dope re- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 99 

sponded with a quick lick of his red tongue on the 
rough, caressing hand. 

'Well, Joe,'’ acknowledged Pete, "I guess you 
have got the best of it. At any rate, Pd rather bank 
on the dog's instinct than I would on our judg- 
ment." 

"Yes," agreed Kennedy, "The dog has got him 
sized up for bad medicine. Let's play this game 
mighty carefully." 

"Sure thing," agreed the other two, but Joe 
added : 

"I wish I could have a talk with Ah Fat without 
those other Chinks getting on. That's one thing I 
don't believe foxy Mr. Lee Sing knows about — that 
Ah Fat is my old side-partner. It's Chinaman 
against Oriental here, and if Ah Fat joined the 
Dragon's Fang to help me out — as I am willing to 
bet he did — ^you're apt to see a mighty pretty line- 
up between two of a kind. Ah Fat ain't no slouch 
when it comes to a show down, and don't you for- 
get it." 

Pete and Floyd paid a visit to the Baranoif castle 
in the afternoon, Kennedy electing to remain on 
board to watch their suspicious neighbors. It is a 
heavy, square building crowning the rocky head- 
land rising from the water. The building is a 
hundred and forty feet long by seventy wide, and 
framed of huge cedar logs riveted to the rock itself 
by copper bolts. From the earliest Russian settle- 


lOO Captain Pete in Alaska 

ment in the seventeenth century, it has been the 
habitation of the governors of the province. They 
were usually chosen from the nobility, and when 
they left the European capital of their country they 
brought their luxurious habits and belongings with 
them. The great drawing room had been lined 
with mirrors, and the interior appointments replete 
with Muscovite splendor. At the time our friends 
made their visit the castle was in perfect condition 
so far as its solid frame was concerned, but it had 
been despoiled of every portable thing. The great 
lantern, even, that used to light the mariner from 
the castle tower, was gone, and the Hall of State, 
where the governors received and entertained their 
visitors, was dismantled, and resembled a gloomy 
garret. 

When they were coming up the wharf on their 
return. Dope stalked behind as usual, with his nose 
in the crook of his master’s knee. Wong, of the 
Dragon's Fang, happened to be going ashore, and 
met them. As they came abreast of each other, 
Pete and Joe, who had their eyes fixed on the 
pirate’s face, suddenly saw its expression change 
into one of agony. His hand darted to his breast, 
and reappeared armed with a long, curved knife. 
At the same instant Pete realized that Dope had 
deserted his post, and held the calf of the China- 
man’s leg between his teeth. Like a flash the 
weapon descended in a gleaming side blow. Si- 
multaneously, Floyd fell back a pace behind Pete^ 


lOI 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

and struck Wong with all the force of his shoulder 
behind his huge fist. The unexpected blow caught 
the mate on the side of his head, and bowled him 
over like a nine-pin. The knife stuck point up in 
the plank alongside of Dope. Floyd pulled the 
quivering blade from the wood, and drawled to 
Pete, as he cautiously ran his finger along the 
edge: 

‘Tt’s a nice little tooth-pick, Captain Pete. I 
reckon it would have made Dope sick if I hadn’t 
landed first.” 

Pete was holding the dog by the heavy collar. 
Dope was insane with rage, and with bared teeth, 
snarled fiercely in his efforts to reach Wong. Joe’s 
blow had been given with a heartiness that stunned 
the man for a moment, but he was a sturdy villain, 
and quickly leaped to his feet. His under-hung 
jaw was set, and his lips drawn back over his teeth 
in a menace that equalled Dope’s in fury. For a 
second, as he confronted them, all the insane and 
unrestrained ferocity of his race and type showed 
in his face. 

Then a cheerful voice broke in from behind them, 
and his features once more assumed the sullen im- 
passiveness that ordinarily characterised them. 

‘What’s this? Your dog don’t seem to like my 
mate!” broke in Lee Sing, who had seen the inci- 
dent from the deck of the Dragon* s Fang, and 
arrived on the scene with a celerity of which he 
would not have been thought capable. 


102 Captain Pete in Alaska 

''It was an accident/' explained Pete, rather 
lamely. 

Floyd was still admiring the "tooth-pick," and 
he added tersely : 

"It might have been worse." 

Lee Sing spoke imperatively to Wong in the 
Chinese tongue. The latter answered humbly, and 
apparently in extenuation. Then the pirate cap- 
tain turned to our friends : 

"He says the dog seized him without provoca- 
tion, and before he thought he lunged at him with 
the knife." 

Lee Sing’s tone and manner were serene. It was 
apparent he did not intend to have any fracas be- 
tween the ship’s companies at this time, whatever 
might be his intentions in the future. 

Pete sharply ordered the mastiff onto the Grade, 
and he obeyed with unusual reluctance. The pi- 
rate’s leg was gashed so that blood flowed freely, 
but serious injury had been averted by the quick- 
ness with which Pete pulled the dog back. As they 
examined the wound, Floyd stood on the string 
piece of the dock. When he stepped down, the 
knife, apparently by accident, fell from his hand. 
It struck the edge of the timber and bounded, a 
glittering crescent, into twenty feet of water. The 
incident made Wong scowl. 

When the mate had gone on about his business, 
Pete apologised for the dog’s indiscretion, freely 
acknowledging the attack had been unwarranted. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 103 

He drew a gold piece from his pocket, and told Lee 
Sing to give it to the victim. He said he would not 
permit the mastiff to come ashore in future. 
His overtures were received in the spirit in which 
they were made, and the two parted amicably, Lee 
Sing again reminding him of the engagement to 
dine on the Dragon's Fang. 

Kennedy witnessed the adventure from the after 
deck of the Grade, but with unusual self-restraint 
he had foreborne to hasten to the scene of the en- 
counter. His first words when they came aboard 
were to Joe Floyd. 

‘'Partner,'’ he said, “you must have learned how 
to hit from a pile-driver. That Chinaman went 
over like a jack rabbit with a charge of number six 
in it." 

“I was in a hurry," remarked Joe extenuatingly. 
“I didn't want to hurt the cuss, but if I hadn't got 
the lick in lively, he'd spitted Dope on that 'ere 
kreese of his." 

“It was an ugly-looking tool," conceded Ken- 
nedy. “And those Chinamen know how to use that 
kind of a weapon." 

“Yes," rejoined Joe reminiscently. “I've seen 
them make sausage meat of one another in the dig- 
gings in California." 

“It's unfortunate," said Pete. “I never expected 
old Dope to make such a break, and it's the first 
time he ever did in his life." 

“He didn't make no mistake," Joe affirmed. 


104 Captain Pete in Alaska 

^‘Perhaps not/’ resumed Pete. “But we seem to 
be the aggressors. From all Pve heard of the Ori- 
ental character, this offense will never be forgiven, 
and I guess they’ll try and make Dope’s friends, as 
well as Dope himself, pay for the attack.” 

“Yes,” concluded Kennedy. “The worst of it is, 
these fellows smile, and smile, and you never know 
when they are going to bite until they get their 
teeth in you.” 

Jimmy and Long Tom went ashore that night to 
take a look at the Rancherie, which interested them 
more than anything else about Sitka. It was a 
double row of square houses on the water front at 
the end of the town, and corresponded in character 
with the Five Points district of New York City in 
the days before Jake Reis started his philanthropic 
crusade. They did not come aboard until after 
eleven o’clock, and it was evident the little Scotch- 
man had several drinks of hoochinoo in him. 
Tom, with greater self restraint, or a larger sense 
of responsibility, was perfectly sober. The three 
superiors had remained on deck in the moist twi- 
light. Jimmy, with rather devious steps, at once 
sought his bunk. Long Tom joined the others. 

“Captain,” he said to Pete, “there’s some funny 
business about this Dragon’s Fang outfit. Ever 
since we first saw her she has had a crew of China- 
men, but to-night two of those deck hands were 
down at the Rancherie, and who do you suppose 
was with them ?” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 105 

He answered his own question, as the others 
stared at him interrogatively : 

‘^Do you remember those two fellows that wanted 
to ship with us when we were laying in the Arm ?” 

^'Scar-face, and his mate?^’ asked Kennedy. 

^^Yes.” 

‘‘They must have kept them below, out of sight, 
said Pete. “They knew we couldn’t avoid recog- 
nizing them.” 

“That’s what,” agreed Joe Floyd. 

“After all,” summed up Pete, “I don’t see that 
it makes a spark of difference. We know now that 
the company of the Dragon's Fang consists of 
seven individuals. It’s not probable they have any 
more concealed in the hold. One of them we think 
to be friendly to us.” 

“Sure as you’re born !” drawled Joe. 

“We know what their intentions are, and the pur- 
pose of their voyage. All we’ve got to do is to 
watch out, and catch them if they start anything.” 

“I wish they would come to clinches,” said Ken- 
nedy. “By the Tail Feathers of the Grosbeak! I 
don’t like this armed neutrality.” 


CHAPTER X 


THE POISON BALL. JOE FLOYD TALKS TO AH FAT 

W HEN Pete came on deck the next morning, 
his attention was at once attracted by the 
way Dope was acting. He was playing with a 
little, dark-colored ball. He would sniff it, and 
throw up his nose in a peculiar way, as if the scent 
at once attracted and repelled him. Then he would 
gaze at it with his head sagaciously cocked on one 
side, and paw it with his foot. He chased it in this 
way from one side of the deck to the other, never — 
Pete observed — taking it in his mouth. 

''What have you got there, old boy?’’ inquired 
the lad. 

He picked it up to examine it more closely. 
Dope sat on his hind quarters, and watched him 
with an inquiring eye. The object was not larger 
than a golf ball, and it had a strange, fragrant 
odor that Pete did not recognize. On closer in- 
spection the ball was discovered to be of some waxy 
substance. When Pete cut it through with his 
knife, he found it of the same putty-like con- 
sistency throughout. The odor was stronger as he 
opened it, and Dope sniffed again inquiringly, at 
io6 


Captain Pete in Alaska 107 

the same time whimpering in a way Pete did not 
quite understand. 

One of the first lessons the mastifif had learned 
in his puppyhood was never to eat anything except 
from the hand of his master, or when given to him 
by one in whom he had confidence. Adherence to 
this rule had probably preserved his life to the pres- 
ent period, for Captain Pete was aware that his 
enemies had a number of times attempted to poison 
the dog in the early days of his warfare with the 
Smugglers of Puget Sound. 

As he turned the strange object over inquiringly, 
Joe Floyd joined him. The rancher’s olfactory 
nerves must have been highly developed, for he 
caught the odor when still ten feet distant, and 
looked surprised and interested : 

‘What’s up. Captain Pete?” he inquired, this 
time without the usual drawl. 

‘T found Dope playing with this thing,” ex- 
plained Pete, holding out the two halves of the ball. 
“He seemed inclined to eat it, but has been trained 
not to gobble anything except I or somebody he 
knows give it to him.” 

“I see,” said Floyd, taking the globe from Pete. 
He smelt it curiously, and passed it back with a 
grave face. 

“It stinks like a Chinaman,” he said. “I seem 
to remember the smell, but can’t place it. I think 
it’s a poison ball that’s been chucked over to the 


io8 Captain Pete in Alaska 

dog by my friend Wong. Put it away careful. 
Pll make that fellow eat it if I get the chance/’ 

Pete put the suspicious ball away in a tin can in 
his private locker, and, on Joe’s advice, washed his 
hands carefully, and cleaned the paws of the mas- 
tiff, where they had come in contact with the 
suspected object. 

Lee Sing strolled aboard the Grade in the course 
of the morning with his usual debonair manner. 
Pete had kept the mastiff below, out of sight, since 
finding the poison ball, but when the pirate 
made his- appearance Floyd called him on deck. 
They were both watching the Captain’s face unob- 
trusively, but no change in expression displayed 
that he had anything to do with the suspected at- 
tempt on the dog’s life. While they were convers- 
ing, Scar-faced Jake and Todd appeared on the deck 
of the Dragon's Fang, and went to work at some 
trivial job. Lee Sing seemed to observe that the 
others were interested in their appearance, and said 
in a casual way : 

‘Tve got a queer crew this trip. Three China- 
men, and two Americans I picked up in Victoria. 
I wasn’t sure they would mix in with my country- 
men, but they begged to come, and I needed more 
men.” He added explanatorily, ‘They started a 
‘rough house’ down below several days ago. 
Wong put them in irons, and didn’t let them out 
until last night.” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 109 

‘‘I should judge they were tough customers from 
their looks/' observed Kennedy. 

‘‘Not any tougher than Wong!" smiled the pi- 
rate. “I think he has already made them respect 
him. My mate is a determined man, and a bad one 
to cross. I never had any trouble with him myself. 
It is said," he concluded confidentially, “that he was 
one of those terrible Chinese pirates in his early 
days." 

After the Dragon's Fang Captain had taken his 
departure, our three friends regarded each other 
in bewilderment. 

“By the Tiger's Tooth!" ejaculated Kennedy. 

“By the Great Horn Spoon!" exclaimed the 
rancher. 

Pete resorted to slang to express his amazement : 

“Wouldn't that cork you?" he inquired of the 
other two. “What do you think about that? For 
audacity and cleverness that fellow takes the cake !" 

“He's smarter than a steel trap," assented Floyd. 

“It was necessary to account for Long Tom's 
meeting with Scar-faced and his friend at the 
Rancherie last night." This was Pete talking. 
“And Lee Sing does it so skillfully we can't pick a 
hole in his explanation. Dope's friend Wong car- 
ries his villainy in his face, and Lee Sing up and 
tells us he was a pirate in his youth. Having pre- 
sumably reformed in later life. Well, well, well!" 

“This Lee Sing makes me some uneasy," con- 


no Captain Pete in Alaska 

fessed Joe. ‘'I didn’t know I had any nerves, but 
this chap seems to be getting on them.” 

‘‘You fellows can eat that Mongolian dinner to- 
day!” burst out Kennedy. “I’m going to stay at 
home, and keep house. I reckon I’ll put in the time 
oiling up my gun.” 

Pete and Joe smiled. They were all impressed 
with a sense of the extraordinary cleverness of their 
opponent, and felt the air charged with subtle 
menace and treachery. They seemed in no danger 
of immediate violence, and were perfectly compe- 
tent to protect themselves from anything of that 
sort, but the intangible something that had entered 
their lives since coming in contact with these yel- 
low miscreants made them feel as if they were in a 
dark room surrounded by pit-falls. The other two 
quite approved the revenue officer’s determination 
to remain away from the dinner. It seemed ab- 
surd, but neither could avoid feeling that some 
crisis might arise on board the Dragon's Fang, or 
that some devilish, crafty attempt might be made 
upon them during the meal. This possibility was 
so impressed on their minds that Kennedy was in- 
structed if they did not appear at a stipulated hour 
from the cabin of the pirate craft, to come on board, 
as if in a friendly way, and investigate the cause of 
their non-appearance. 

At three o’clock. Captain Pete and Floyd made 
their visit to the sealer. The bandy-legged mate 
met them at the gang-way, and Captain Lee Sing 


Captain Pete in Alaska iii 

promptly thrust his head out of the after-com- 
panionway : 

'‘Come right down, gentlemen!’’ he said, with a 
courtesy of manner that would have done no dis- 
credit to a member of the upper ten. 

The bulk-head in the quarters below had been 
moved forward nearly to amidships until it left 
the after cabin an unexpectedly spacious apartment 
in a vessel of that class. It was some twenty feet 
long, and fifteen feet from starboard to port. A 
carved teak-wood table stood in the middle. The 
legs were clamped to the deck, and it was evident 
the entire interior had been refitted to suit the lux- 
urious requirements of this astonishing Mongolian. 
The walls were hung with silken draperies, and a 
rich brocade had been tacked over the ceiling to 
conceal the bareness of the beams above. A silver 
hanging lamp, almost in the nature of a chandelier, 
burning perfumed oil, was suspended over the table. 
It diffused a soft light over the gorgeous scene, 
and completed the atmosphere of sensuousness 
which, despite themselves, lulled the senses of the 
guests. 

The Americans were keenly on the alert, and 
though they did their best to appear at ease, it is 
probable Lee Sing detected their state of mind. 
His manner was perfect, and a more courteous host 
never presided at table. The viands were, for the 
most part, inexplicable to Pete and Floyd, and some 
of the courses were served in such strange form that 


1 12 Captain Pete in Alaska 

the Americans were puzzled as to how to eat them. 
Unconsciously, they both assumed their best table 
manners, and met the Chinaman’s suave courtliness 
with all the dignity and politeness they could as- 
sume. At the same time, they took care to eat 
from no dish to which the Chinaman did not help 
himself first. It was possibly a point of eastern 
etiquette with which they were unacquainted, but 
Lee Sing punctiliously, and even ostentatiously, 
tasted every dish and sampled every fluid of which 
they partook. At the last the pirate produced a 
bulbous flask of green glass, such as we have seen 
him once before partake in the secret chamber in 
Victoria with Wong. He carefully filled the three 
tiny glasses, and raising his own, said in the pol- 
ished manner of best society : 

‘'Gentlemen, I wish you success in all your under- 
takings. May we meet again, and frequently.” 

They pledged him. It was impossible to main- 
tain their suspicious attitude in the face of this 
treatment, and they arrived at the end of their din- 
ner without any of the complications they had 
vaguely feared. When they came on deck, the first 
thing they were aware of was Kennedy standing 
in the wheel-house door with a rifle in his hand. 
A second glance assured Pete he was cleaning it, 
but his first impression had been that the revenue 
officer was ready to begin the war with the Drag- 
on's Fang. 

It was now the tenth of June, and after repeated 


Captain Pete in Alaska 113 

conferences with his two companions, our hero 
came to the determination to remain in Sitka a 
month before starting on the final stage of their 
journey. The relations between the two crews 
continued much as at the beginning, but Lee Sing, 
although he freely visited the Grade, did not dis- 
close his own intentions. By this time he had suc- 
ceeded in so ingratiating himself that Pete and 
even Kennedy had lost the feeling of antagonism 
with which they first viewed him. Joe Floyd, how- 
ever, hung stubbornly to his conviction that the 
Chinaman was 'Tad medicine,^’ and Dope, although 
he was usually kept on board, and only accompanied 
his master ashore in a leash, continued to show 
clearly his suspicious attitude toward their neigh- 
bors. If it had been a poison ball that Dope was 
playing with the morning after his encounter with 
Wong, the attempt on his life was apparently never 
repeated. 

Although he was almost lulled to a sense of se- 
curity, Pete was greatly pleased one morning when 
he observed signs of unusual activity on the Drag- 
on's Fang, Shortly, Captain Lee Sing came, and 
announced he was going to take his departure that 
afternoon for Unalaska. 

During the time the two little vessels had been 
lying next each other, Joe Floyd had been sleep- 
lessly watching an opportunity to have a private 
talk with his friend Ah Fat of the pirate crew. For 
some reason, apparently without intent on the part 


1 14 Captain Pete in Alaska 

of the other Chinamen, this had hitherto seemed 
impossible. Wong kept close watch over his men, 
and seemingly Ah Fat had never been ashore un- 
less in company with one or more of the other mem- 
bers of the crew. 

It happened that the rancher had made an expe- 
dition early that morning to the Hot Springs of 
Sitka. They have not been mentioned before, but 
are among the surroundings which go to make the 
Alaskan city famous. They are ten miles below 
the town and are strongly medicinal, being impreg- 
nated with iron, sulphur, and magnesia. They are 
reported to be beneficial for many diseases, and a 
certain cure of rheumatism and skin disorders. A 
hospital was originally maintained there for the 
use of the employees of the Russian Fur company, 
and the Indians have always resorted to them. 

Joe had taken his lunch with the intention of 
remaining away the whole day, and Dope had gone 
with him for the sake of the exercise. He returned 
earlier than he had intended, and met Ah Fat, who 
had been sent ashore on some errand taking him 
to the further end of the town. It was one of those 
pieces of good fortune which happen when least 
expected. 

As Floyd came into the outskirts of the village 
with the great mastifif. Ah Fat suddenly appeared 
before him. They were half a mile from the wharf, 
and no one around to observe that their meeting 
was more than a casual rencontre. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 115 

Ah Fat’s face was wreathed in smiles, and he 
actually fawned on the huge rancher in his glad- 
ness. Joe, fully as much pleased, wrung the man’s 
hand in a bone-crushing grasp. 

''Now, Ah Fat,” he said. "Tell me all about it 
quick, before anybody turns up to interrupt us.” 
In his coolie dialect of pigeon English, Ah Fat told 
him a story which showed the false security into 
which they had been betrayed by Lee Sing. 

It appeared one of the crew of the Dragon* s Fang 
had worked with Ah Fat as house servant in a 
Victorian English family. Ah Fat was a secretive 
man, and while he completely gained the other’s 
confidence, he had not disclosed his own affairs. In 
consequence, the former member of Lee Sing’s pi- 
rate crew had become confidential with him, and 
when, after the Gracie*s departure, the Dragon*s 
Fang expedition had been determined upon, he in- 
vited Floyd’s friend to join the pirates. The Ce- 
lestial crew seemed to know Lee Sing’s plans, and 
to be aware they were going on the quest of gold, 
the location of which was indicated on a chart 
found on the body of Blondin, whom Lee Sing and 
Wong had murdered. It seemed. Ah Fat said, Lee 
Sing suspected the Frenchman had confided the de- 
tails of his discovery in the northern wilds to the 
ex-revenue man. Consequently, Kennedy’s move- 
ments had been watched, and his conjunction with 
Captain Pete noted. The pirate, he said, knew 
that Captain Graignic was the same Captain Pete 


ii6 Captain Pete in Alaska 

who had figured so prominently in smuggling af- 
fairs on Puget Sound some years before. They 
intended to baffle the intentions of Kennedy and 
Graignic, even if they had to resort to murder to 
accomplish it. When Ah Fat became aware of all 
this, and of the certainty of the plot to involve his 
friend Floyd in its meshes, he determined to accept 
the invitation, and become one of the Dragon's 
Fang crew. 

So far as to the past. Ah Fat’s knowledge of the 
definite future plans of Lee Sing was not great. 
He affirmed Wong had said they were going 
straight to Unalaska, there to await a chance to 
get through the ice pack in the Bering Sea, to the 
mouth of the Yukon. He thought it improbable 
there would be any immediate collision between the 
pirates and Floyd’s friends unless Lee Sing had 
reason to believe the latter were going to beat them 
to the goal at Blondin’s creek. In that case, there 
would be war to the knife, and knife to the hilt. 

In conclusion, the coolie assured Floyd he could 
count on him to the last drop of blood in his body. 
He would contrive at all risk to warn the Grade 
in case the necessity seemed urgent. On the whole, 
Joe was satisfied. Now he knew just where they 
were, and what they had to depend upon. Before 
they parted it was arranged that in need for com- 
munication between them at any future time when 
the vessels might be together, Ah Fat should wear 


Captain Pete in Alaska 117 

a red turban, or Floyd display a white handkerchief, 
as a signal. 

Floyd and Dope took another walk into the coun- 
try, and did not return to the Grade until an hour 
later. As he came over the side, the Dragon* s 
Fang was going away from the dock. Lee Sing 
stood in the stern waving his yellow hand in adieu 
to Pete and Kennedy. 


CHAPTER XI 


A HUNTING TRIP — CAPTAIN SENKIL AND THE 
REVENUE CUTTER 

I T must be confessed our party of amateur gold 
seekers breathed more freely after the departure 
of the Dragon's Fang, and Joe Floyd^s story of his 
interview with Ah Fat did not lessen this feeling. 

At the end of a week, however, they found them- 
selves growing tired of inaction. Kennedy was 
for continuing the voyage, and trusting to luck to 
get through the ice in the Bering Sea. Pete was 
convinced it would not be of the slightest use, and 
that this was a case of the more haste — the less 
speed. Finally Joe Floyd made the happy sugges- 
tion that they hire a couple of Indian guides, and 
take a hunting trip in the interior. The idea was 
hailed with acclamation, and they began to make 
their preparations. The chief of customs recom- 
mended two of the Indians at the Rancherie. He 
said they were successful hunters and reliable men, 
and advised the Grade's party to follow their guid- 
ance implicitly when they reached the hunting 
ground. 

Hunting in the impenetrable Alaskan forest dif- 
fered from anything they had ever experienced. 

ii8 


Captain Pete in Alaska 119 

The party went prepared to protect themselves 
from the insects that made the forest almost unin- 
habitable even to the beasts of the wild. They had 
been told bodies of dead bears that had perished 
by starvation — because of being blinded by the flies 
so that they could not forage — were not infre- 
quently found, and even moose were occasionally 
deprived of sight in this way. The harbor master 
said the woods were a paradise for bears because 
the wind-falls of timber and the thickness of ar- 
boreal growth, united to the plentifulness of ber- 
ries, made ideal conditions for the animals, and vice 
versa for those hunting them. 

During their absence Long Tom kept ship, at his 
own suggestion. They were gone a week, and had 
the time of their lives. Pete actually got a silver 
tip with his Paradox gun. Floyd also distin- 
guished himself by his wood craft, and the Indian 
guides found that the old rancher knew almost as 
much about the wilderness as they did. Kennedy 
used much ammunition, because he blazed away at 
every living thing he saw, regardless of its useful- 
ness after he brought it down. Altogether, the 
trip was a welcome divertisement following the try- 
ing period they had been passing through. They 
returned to the Grade refreshed in spirit, and ready 
for anything that might turn up. 

Nothing did turn up, and they lingered in Sitka 
day after day until they were all deadly tired of the 
monotony. It was getting on to the end of June, 


120 Captain Pete in Alaska 

and Pete determined to make a start the first of 
July. It was barely possible the Bering Sea might 
prove navigable by that time. They thought it 
probable that Lee Sing would have left Unalaska. 
If such were the case, there was nothing to prevent 
them from waiting there until a further advance 
was practicable. 

In order to reach the mouth of the Yukon River 
from Sitka involves a longer deep water voyage 
than one unacquainted with the geography of the 
northern part of the United States would realize. 
The Gulf of Alaska, a vast body of the Pacific 
Ocean, occupies the space between the two south- 
ernmost points of the Alaskan peninsula. Sew- 
ard’s purchase from Russia began at a point of 
territory on about the fifty-fifth degree of north 
latitude. The English possessions, or rather the 
Dominion of Canada, generally known as British 
Columbia, occupies the country to the east, but 
Seward in his bargain from the Russians bought 
a strip of coast land extending from fifty-five to 
sixty north latitude. From here the United States 
boundary line runs northward along the one hun- 
dred and forty-first parallel of longitude as far as 
the Arctic Ocean, joining it at what is known as 
Beaufort Sea. 

In this narrow stretch of coast line owned by the 
United States, most of the better known part of 
Alaska lay at the time of our story. Juneau, 
Wrangel, Sitka, and numerous smaller places had 


I2I 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

been settled by nomad white men, who for years 
made a profitable though arduous livelihood by 
trading with the Indians, and trapping on their own 
account. This section of country has for many 
years supplied the greater' portion of the finer qual- 
ity of furs to civilization. The Russians have ac- 
quired the gorgeous sables and ermines, and other 
rare and imperial peltries in use among their no- 
bility from this hunting ground. The dense forest, 
and protected coast line, fringed and dotted with 
a lace of islands, made the territory a happy hunt- 
ing ground, teeming with animal life. 

Alaska proper, the real peninsula, extends from 
the hundred and forty-first parallel of longitude 
westward as far as the one hundred and sixty- 
eighth. The great indentation called the Gulf of 
Alaska hollows out the southern portion of the 
new acquisition. On the parallel of one hundred 
and fifty-two longitude, a headland juts out from 
the south, and trends to the west towards Siberia, 
the northwestern portion of the European conti- 
nent. It is claimed by scientific men that this head- 
land is the sole vestige remaining of a gigantic 
mountain chain which in ages gone by connected 
the eastern and western hemispheres. The head- 
land or mountain range extends continuously west- 
ward nearly a thousand miles, and thereafter its 
course is indicated by a line of islands which re- 
semble a string of beads leading clear to the shores 
of Siberia. These are known as the Aleutian 


122 Captain Pete in Alaska 

group, and it is along this pathway that daring men 
have proposed to construct a line of railway con- 
necting America and Europe. In view of the 
stupendous works that are accomplished to-day by 
the advance of engineering science; the possibility 
of concentrating vast sums of money on designated 
purposes ; and the available army of skilled and in- 
dustrious workers, it seems possible that this uto- 
pian dream may be realized. 

Captain Pete and his little ship’s company did 
not bother their heads about these things, or the 
future possibility of stepping into a parlor car in 
New York and traveling continuously from there 
to the Mediterranean Sea. Captain Pete’s first 
problem was to cross the eleven hundred miles of 
north Pacific Ocean which intervened in one vast 
stretch of salt water between Sitka and Unalaska. 
It was necessary to go five or six hundred miles 
south of the point to which he was ultimately 
bound, the mouth of the Yukon River, in order to 
do this. He was compelled to make this detour 
because Unimak Pass, between the end of that 
great projecting headland and the string of Aleu- 
tian Islands was the only safe place where he could 
get through with the Grade into the Bering Sea. 

Our adventurers had no difficulty replacing the 
stores consumed since beginning their trip. The 
Sitka merchants carried large stocks of the best 
lines of goods. As a matter of fact, as one goes 
north, stores of inferior quality drop out of exist- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 123 

ence. The inhabitants of Alaska require, demand, 
and receive the very best of everything, and are 
perfectly willing to pay the increased price. 

All were glad to be at sea, and to settle down 
again to routine shipboard life. The waters of this 
northern ocean were teeming with animal life be- 
yond all they had ever known. Whales were con- 
stantly in sight. One morning a tremendous 
splashing called them all on deck. About a quar- 
ter of a mile ahead a fight was going on between 
several huge creatures. They levelled their glasses, 
and viewed the conflict with amazement. It was 
a scene not often gazed upon by human eyes. 
Three ''killers” had attacked a bowhead whale. 
The latter was a tremendous creature, probably 
weighing twice as much as the combined bulk of 
the killers. Pete estimated that from the end of 
flukes to the point of his nose was eighty to ninety 
feet, and so far as they could judge, its body was 
at least fifteen or twenty feet thick. 

The killers, also a variety of whale, were not 
more than eighteen or twenty feet in length. They 
are an active and enterprising fish — or mammal 
rather, for they bring forth their young alive — 
and of a fierce disposition, and ravenous appetite 
which impels them to attack anything in their vi- 
cinity. The conflict was furious, and it was evi- 
dent the unfortunate leviathan was getting the 
worst of the battle. His nimble assailants would 
leap in the air and come down on the exposed por- 


124 Captain Pete in Alaska 

tion of his body, seemingly attempting to stun him 
with the impact of the fall. When the ponderous 
bowhead attempted to ‘'sound'’ — that is, go beneath 
the water — the alert killers dived and drove him 
to the surface again, where they flayed him merci- 
lessly. His bulk and comparative slowness made 
him unequal to the struggle despite his enormous 
strength. 

The bowhead soon grew feebler. He ceased his 
fierce rushes, and the frenzied flapping of his tail 
and fins, and lay motionless on the surface of the 
sea. Even the muscles of his jaws relaxed, and the 
lower one, which seemed to be attached to the head 
by a ball and socket joint, fell. This left his cav- 
ernous mouth wide open, and our voyagers could 
see his huge white tongue, seven or eight feet long, 
dangerously exposed. The killers also saw it. It 
seemed to be the primary object of their attack on 
the whale, for they eagerly crowded around the 
mouth, and actually gobbled that tongue up as a 
captive lion would a piece of flesh thrown between 
the iron bars of his cage. 

That settled the whale. The killers were satis- 
fied with the tid-bit they had secured for their 
morning repast, and disappeared, leaving the dying 
mammoth to his fate. 

A couple of hours after they left the dead whale, 
they saw smoke in the distance. From the rapidity 
with which it became perceptible, it was evident 
a steamer was approaching on a line that would 


Captain Pete in Alaska 125 

bring the two vessels’ together. Before long the 
hull of the stranger was in view. 

‘'A revenue cutter!” announced Pete. ^‘It must 
be the Deer. I heard she was cruising up here to 
prevent poaching on the seal herds of the Pribilof 
Islands.” 

'‘Why!” observed Kennedy. "The Pribilof s are 
not around here, are they?” 

"No,” replied Pete, the all knowing. "They are 
in the Bering Sea. On the other side of the Aleu- 
tian Islands. I believe about four hundred miles 
from Dutch Harbor.” 

"Dutch Harbor?” repeated Floyd. "That's 
somewhere near Unalaska, isn't it?” 

"Yes,” Pete answered. "I think they are only 
four or five miles apart. They are, I understand, 
rival trading stations. Each one is headquarters 
of a powerful company which employs a number of 
hunters and trappers, beside dickering with the 
natives of these bleak wilds for the skins from 
which the markets of the world are supplied with 
fur.” 

"What is the Deer doing here?” inquired Ken- 
nedy. "We must be some distance from the Aleu- 
tian chain.” 

"Three or four hundred miles,” answered Pete. 
"I believe Captain Senkil of the cutter Deer has 
the general supervision of these northern waters. 
The sealers and traders are lawless fellows, and 
when the employees of the different companies 


126 Captain Pete in Alaska 

come together, there is often strife and even blood- 
shed. But I don’t know what Captain Senkil is 
doing so far east. He would seem to be off his 
beat.” 

Pete’s surmise was right, for the ensign flew at 
the cutter’s peak, and every line of the smart little 
vessel indicated her character. She headed for the 
Grade, and an officer, from the quarter deck of 
the cutter, ordered Pete through his speaking 
trumpet to heave to, as he desired to come aboard. 
It was Captain Senkil himself, togged out in all the 
bravery of uniform and brass buttons, who came 
over the side, and greeted our adventurers cordially. 
They retired to the cabin, and sat down for 
a comfortable chat. Captain Senkil had none of 
the stiffness or severity of the naval martinet in his 
make-up, and accepted our mariners as respectable 
members of society, travelling on legitimate busi- 
ness. Pete told the officer they were bound for the 
Yukon River, and intended to ascend it on a trad- 
ing and exploring expedition, as much for pleasure 
as for profit. 

They found Senkil knew of the revenue officer, 
and Captain Pete, although he had never before 
run across them. He had been stationed in north- 
western waters for a number of years, and was, as 
it turned out, a warm friend of Collector Hogan of 
Port Townsend. He had also heard of Dope, and 
the presence of the mastiff served to establish the 
identity of his master. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 127 

'‘What are you doing so far east, Captain Sen- 
kil?’' inquired Pete, with some curiosity. 

“Well,” he returned, “I guess Pll go back with 
you as far as Unalaska. The truth is,” he added, 
“that I took a cast around to see if I couldnT find 
out what had become of a queer craft that interests 
me very much. It's a sealing schooner with a non- 
descript crew of Chinese and white men which has 
been lying in the harbor at Unalaska for several 
weeks. They are law-abiding so far as I know, 
but the outfit seemed to have possibilities of evil. 
By the way,” he interrupted himself, “they said 
they were outward bound from Sitka.” Pete, and 
Kennedy, and Joe had simultaneously become alert 
as the captain proceeded with his tale. “The 
schooner, the Dragon's Fang was her name, dis- 
appeared night before last without any intimation 
of her destination. The whole incident was mysti- 
fying. I can't help feeling there is something 
wrong about them, although the captain was a 
plausible fellow. To conclude my yarn,” he con- 
tinued, “I did not believe they had ventured into 
the Bering Sea, for they were liable to get nipped in 
the ice. Having nothing in particular in the line 
of duty, I took a cast back through these waters to 
see what they were up to.” 

“Didn't run across them, did you?” inquired 
Kennedy significantly. 

“No,” replied the officer. “I see my story inter- 


128 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


ests you, and shouldn’t wonder if you knew some- 
thing of this craft yourself?” 

Pete nodded affirmatively, while the others waited 
for him to do the talking. He was not sure how 
far to confide the extent of his knowledge of the 
Dragon's Fang and its crew to the master of the 
cutter. He felt it unwise to divulge anything that 
would possibly lead to the adventures of the ^‘Yel- 
low Bird Gold Mining Company” being involved in 
the meshes of the law as witnesses against the Lee 
Sing outfit. He was convinced the Dragon's Fang 
was formerly an innocent sealing schooner, and had 
been stolen from Victoria harbor by its present 
possessors. This constituted a serious crime in 
sea-faring communities known as barratry, and 
was a breach of the law liable to be punished by 
heavy penalty. If he confided his suspicions to 
the naval man, he knew the other would start in 
determined pursuit of Lee Sing. Of course the 
imprisonment of the pirates would remove all dan- 
ger to the Grade's company in the prosecution of 
their mining enterprise. On the other hand if 
they were detained to testify against the Drag- 
on's Dangers it would prevent them from go- 
ing to Blondin’s placer mine during the present 
season. He was anxious to get there at all haz- 
ards, for he strongly felt the Frenchman’s lucky 
discovery was liable to be duplicated at any mo- 
ment. He knew the news of such a find would 
flood even the wilds of Alaska with a hoard of 


Captain Pete in Alaska 129 

prospectors who would turn up every stone to see 
if there was gold beneath. 

''Yes, we know something of them,'’ he ad- 
mitted. "The Dragon's Fang was moored within 
thirty feet of us at the dock in Sitka, and Captain 
Lee Sing was a frequent visitor on board the 
Grade," 

He paused as if he was through speaking. Cap- 
tain Senkil regarded him critically, and then 
shifted the gaze of his inquiring eyes to Floyd and 
Kennedy. It made them uneasy, for they saw the 
master of the revenue cutter suspected Pete of con- 
cealing something, but they determined to let their 
young leader act as spokesman. Senkil turned 
back to Pete: 

"I've heard that politics makes strange bed-fel- 
lows, but I swear I can't understand why there 
should be any friendship between you. Captain 
Pete, and that piratical set of miscreants who 
manned the Dragon's Fang, I see there is some- 
thing you three are not inclined to let out, and 
although I am satisfied you're all right, I have half 
a mind to insist that you open up and tell me what 
you know.” 

As he uttered the last words his tones had an 
imperative note, and he looked rather sternly from 
one to the other of our friends. 

Pete saw they were on the verge of a misunder- 
standing. He was aware of the importance of not 
falling out with Captain Senkil. It was advisable 


130 Captain Pete in Alaska 

to keep on the right side of the master of the north- 
ern seas. He had heard of Senkil as a first rate 
man, although his position as sole arbiter — and 
court of last resort, in many instances — in these 
waters had inclined him to be arbitrary. He came 
to a rapid decision, and turning squarely to the 
officer said: 

‘‘You are right in your surmise. Captain Senkil. 
We know more than I have told about these Chi- 
nese, but upon my honor as a man, I can swear 
to no crime, or even illegality, they have committed 
on this trip. Captain Kennedy and I both knew 
Lee Sing in Victoria where he posed as a tea 
dealer, although in reality actively engaged in 
opium-smuggling and coolie-running through the 
San Juan archipelago into the United States. 
Even now I am not telling the full extent of our 
knowledge, and frankly. Captain, I hope you will 
not insist on my doing so. I give you my word 
that what I know of the man and his outfit do not 
seem to me to bring them within the scope of your 
jurisdiction. I may tell you further we ourselves 
are going to Alaska on a private enterprise, and 
that there is a strong possibility — even a certainty 
— Lee Sing is bound on the same quest. If you 
detained him and his vessel for a few months it 
would be the best thing that could occur for our 
interests, but — and here. Captain, is the nigger in 
the wood pile — we must be able to go forward while 
he is held. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 131 

Captain Senkil listened to this somewhat in- 
volved explanation with puzzled, but softening fea- 
tures. Like most men of his kidney he could not 
brook opposition, but was easy enough to deal with 
if his fur were stroked along the grain. 

‘Well, well,’^ he said with a perplexed smile. 
“I guess it’s all right. Captain Pete. I won’t push 
you any further than you want to go, but if you 
feel that you could give me any hint that will lead 
me towards the solution of this puzzle I heartily 
wish you would do so.” 

Pete thought a moment before he replied. 

“You have got them sized up right, at any rate. 
Captain Senkil. They are a gang of ‘piratical mis- 
creants,’ and if anything is certain, it is that they 
would break any, or all laws, on the slightest provo- 
cation.” 


CHAPTER XII 


CAPTAIN SENKIL CATCHES THE DRAGON's 
FANGERS SEAL POACHING 

HEN the Grade arrived in the beautiful little 



» ▼ hill-enclosed inner bay of Unalaska, the reve- 
nue cutter Deer already lay there at anchor. They 
had expected this, for Senkil said at the conclusion 
of their interview that he ''guessed he’d go back 
and patrol the Bering Sea.” Apparently he had 
been thinking over the problem presented to him 
by the Dragon's Fang, for the next morning he sent 
a boat to the Grade with a polite note to Pete ask- 
ing him to visit him on the Deer. When the lad 
read the invitation aloud to Kennedy and Joe, all 
three were curious to know what it meant. 

"If worst comes to worst I don’t believe it will 
do any harm to tell Senkil the story of Blondin’s 
discovery of gold on the Yukon,” said Pete. "If 
I did so under the seal of secrecy, I do not believe 
he would take advantage of it.” 

"Of course not,” agreed the other two. 

"Furthermore he is inclined to be friendly with 
us, and if he knew our secret he might assist us in 
many ways. The only difficulty with men like him 
is that official duties frequently conflict with their 


132 


133 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

personal relations. These naval officers get a 
moral sense in the performance of official duty 
which is different from that of the average civilian. 
Senkil is a warm-hearted fellow, and I believe he 
would do any good-natured thing that he person- 
ally could to further our plans. But if it appeared 
to him that we were necessary to his purposes in the 
matter of pressing a criminal investigation against 
Lee Sing he would not consider our private inter- 
est a moment. His first duty would lie in the con- 
viction of the Chinaman, and he'd ruthlessly hold 
us until we had served his necessity." 

Pete and Captain Senkil faced each other across 
the table in his after cabin. Senkil's manner was 
cordial, and gave no hint of authority. Pete did 
not know what to expect. 

“Mr. Graignic," began the officer, rivetting our 
hero’s eye. “Since our talk on the Grade I have 
been doing a heap of thinking. I believe I see a 
ray of light. Perhaps this is none of my business. 
Pm inclined to think it isn’t, but I am taking a 
strong personal interest in the game.* You may 
consider that nothing passing between us to-day will 
be counted by me as of official significance. What 
you told me of yourself and the Grade, and what 
I have divined of Lee Sing and the Dragon's Fang 
intertwines into a story that excites my inquisitive- 
ness to a high degree. I don’t want you to feel 
I am prying into your personal concerns. But — ’’ 
here he flashed a frank smile on Pete, “if you had 


134 Captain Pete in Alaska 

been stationed up here in this Arctic waste for two 
years as I have been, pent in on myself by my offi- 
cial duties, you would understand that a matter of 
this kind might prove strongly attractive. This is 
a sort of an apology for making myself obnoxious 
to you.'" 

Pete was much taken by the officer's preamble. 
He liked Senkil, and believed it would be safe to in- 
trust him with the whole story of the ‘"Yellowbird 
Gold Mining Company." His Indian blood, how- 
ever, inclined him to caution, and he determined not 
to give up his secret unless it was necessary to avoid 
complications. 

''Now," continued Senkil. "I want to say one 
word and put a big interrogation point after it." 

"What is it?" asked Pete with a notion of what 
the answer would be. 

"Gold?" 

Pete had anticipated the question in his mind. 
The officer’s blue eyes dug into his dark ones like 
gimlets, and the lad could not avoid smiling: 

"Right !" he said simply. 

The officer drew a long breath of satisfaction. 
It was evident he was working out the details of 
the puzzle as if it were a chess problem, and was 
greatly pleased at every step forward through the 
complexities. 

"Look here. Captain Pete," burst out Senkil, 
"I believe I'm on the trail, and I'm going to tell you 
what I think. You can confirm it or not as you 


Captain Pete in Alaska 135 

please. I have heard hints of placer gold in Alaska 
and Siberia ever since IVe been on this northern 
station. I’m a bit of a geologist myself, and know 
it to be probable that some day a discovery will be 
made up here that will set the world ablaze. Now, 
have you made that discovery, or has Lee Sing 
made it, and is that what you’re both bound for in 
these extraordinary expeditions ?” 

'‘You are more or less right. Captain Senkil,” 
conceded Pete. "As man to man in confidence, I 
am going to tell you that Kennedy and I, and 
Lee Sing know of the discovery of an important 
placer deposit on the upper Yukon. We got our 
information in different ways from the same 
man.” 

"Where is the man?” asked the officer. 

"Dead,” replied Pete. 

"Murdered ?” interrogated the master of the rev- 
enue cutter. 

"Yes,” acknowledged Pete. 

"Lee Sing, of course?” queried the other. 

"Suspected, but no legal evidence,” answered 
Pete. 

The officer leaned his head on his hand, his gaze 
still boring into Pete’s eyes. 

"Lee Sing is aware of your knowledge?” 

"He is,” answered Pete. 

"It’s all clear!” summed up Senkil. "Except 
about the Dragon's Fang, and its crew. Shall I 
ask more questions ?” 


136 Captain Pete in Alaska 

''If you wish/' replied Pete. "You've got about 
all." 

The captain of the revenue cutter thought a mo- 
ment, and inquired: 

"About the schooner they've christened the 
Dragon's Fang?" 

"Stolen outright, I fancy." 

"It seems curious," said Senkil tentatively, "that 
Lee Sing should have been able to organize his 
ship's company so completely, and at such short no- 
tice." 

"I am told," Pete .answered, "on what seems good 
authority, that Lee Sing was formerly a notorious 
pirate in the southern hemisphere. Wong, his 
present mate, served him in the same capacity at 
that period, and two members of the crew were also 
with him formerly." 

"I see !" Senkil said. 

He pondered deeply for a short time, and Pete 
did not speak. At last he lifted his eyes : 

"About the murdered man who discovered the 
gold in Alaska ? I assume there is no proof to con- 
nect the Chinaman with the crime ?" 

"We know it, but the evidence is purely circum- 
stantial." 

"Well," remarked Senkil, getting up and pacing 
the little apartment with his head bowed, and his 
hands in his pockets. "I must confess it is the most 
interesting adventure that has' come to me since I 
have been in the north, and I have had many. 


137 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

Count me as an ally. I am going to help you heart 
and hand. And/' he added, ''my impression is that 
you will need my aid before you are through. 
Those chaps will stop at nothing." 

"That is my opinion," concluded Pete, as he arose. 

When the summer thaw sets in in the interior of 
Alaska, it is late in the season before the heat from 
the sun is sufficiently ardent to loosen the fetters 
of ice which bind the waters in the upper reaches 
of the Yukon River. A day comes at last when the 
rotten ice can no longer hold together, and it dis- 
integrates little by little until the great stream from 
its source to the mouth is one vast trough vomiting 
its gelid contents into the basin of the Bering Sea. 
The Yukon is one of the mighty rivers of the earth 
in length and volume, while the Bering Sea nar- 
nows in the northeast, forming what is known as 
Norton's Sound. Still further north it contracts 
to discharge its waters through Bering Strait into 
the Arctic. St. Lawrence Island on the south 
fences off the main body of the sea. It forms a 
smallish, almost enclosed area between the eastern 
and western hemispheres. Into this circumscribed 
space the Yukon hurls its burden of broken ice. 

I have been at some pains to explain the situation 
which confronted Captain Pete and the crew of the 
Grade, It was this condition only which prevented 
them from sailing lightly across to the mouth of the 
Yukon. At this very time that portion of the Ber- 
ing Sea was filled with ice. It was not one broken 


138 Captain Pete in Alaska 

sheet, but the surface of the water was covered 
with innumerable fragments varying from chunks 
the size of a paving stone, to cakes twenty or thirty 
feet across. The thickness of these cakes was com- 
puted to be seven-eighths below the water, and one- 
eighth on top. The temperature was mild as that 
of a summer resort in the Catskills because the sun 
was in evidence during the greater part of the 
twenty-four hours. At twelve or one o’clock — 
night in lower latitudes — the luminary would set in 
the north, leaving its lurid reflection on the horizon 
above the point of disappearance. Before the crim- 
son rays had scarcely time to fade from the sky at 
the point where it sank beneath the sea, it would 
rise again in almost the same quarter. A little 
later, and it would swing its orbit in full sight 
around the apex of the earth. 

The mass of floating ice is subject more or less 
to the caprice of King Boreas. A powerful and 
steady breeze will drive the ice fragments together, 
and mass it on one or the other of the continents 
forming its Eastern and Western boundaries. 
Should the King of the winds exhale his breath 
from the north or northeast it forces the ice out past 
St. Lawrence Island into the open Bering Sea. If 
from the south or southwest it congregates the 
glacial fragments in Norton’s Sound, and further 
north at the narrow mouth of the strait. In short 
it is rarely the great ice field is not more or less in 


Captain Pete in Alaska 139 

motion. Subject also to the currents in this shal- 
low sea which are constantly created by the varying 
degrees of temperature, the expanse of ice is a law 
to itself, and one which can be rarely interpreted by 
man. Little creeks form between the floes; open 
bays shape themselves here and there; at times 
wide channels split the pack as far as the eye can 
see, and allure vessels to seek the further end of the 
field. This hope has frequently proven fallacious, 
and resulted in the loss of the daring but injudicious 
navigator with his vessel and crew. 

So far as Pete and Senkil could divine, it looked 
as if Lee Sing and the Dragon* s Dangers, in their 
mad haste to reach the placer mine, had taken these 
hazards. The schooner had certainly laid its 
course to the northward from Unalaska. The 
Pribilof Islands, on which the vast herds of fur seal 
breed and make their home during a portion of the 
year, are only three or four hundred miles distant 
and in the path toward the mouth of the Yukon. 
It seemed possible the unscrupulous Chinamen had 
stopped to poach while awaiting an opportunity to 
make their way through the ice. Senkil was con- 
vinced by his futile search that the pirate was not 
to the eastward of the Aleutians, and it was incon- 
ceivable that they had laid their course westerly to 
Alaska. Ice was more plentiful along the coast, 
and it was constantly replenished from the mouths 
of the numerous creeks and rivers. 


140 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Senkil got his anchor aboard two days after, and 
steamed out of Unalaska harbor bound to the Pri- 
bilofs. 

‘'Captain Pete,"’ he had said while his jaws 
closed like the teeth of a steel trap. “If that 
smooth-faced free-booter is monkeying around 
those islands and stealing United States property 
I am going to bring him back in irons. If the out- 
fit make any trouble about coming Pll turn the Gat- 
ling loose on them.” 

“In that case,” smiled Pete, “my pathway up the 
river will be clear.” 

“I’ll clear it for you — if I can do so in the line of 
duty !” affirmed the doughty naval officer. 

During the ensuing week the stockholders of the 
“Yellowbird Gold Mining Company” spent most of 
their time watching for the smoke of the returning 
revenue cutter. The prevailing winds had blown 
from the south and southwest, and they knew it was 
improbable, under existing conditions that even the 
most reckless navigator would brave the dangers 
of a passage to the Yukon delta. 

“There she comes,” quietly observed Pete to his 
two companions on the afternoon of the fifth day. 
The little cutter steamed in, and dropped anchor in 
her usual berth. Before she was barely moored 
Floyd, who happened to be looking out through the 
passage, remarked softly : 

“Jewhillikens!” 

A little sealing schooner that remarkably resem- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 141 

bled the Dragon s Fang was booming in under full 
sail. 

‘‘It’s the Dragon* s Fang!** Pete said, after a mo- 
ment’s examination with his glasses. 

“What in thunder does it mean?” asked Kennedy. 

Pete now had his eyes glued to the decks of the 
Deer, Nothing unusual appeared there, and Cap- 
tain Senkil was getting into a small boat. 

“I believe — ” said Pete, thoughtfully. “I believe 
our friend. Captain Senkil, has found Lee Sing do- 
ing something he had no right to, and captured the 
sealer. He’d do it if he had to strain a point, and 
he probably has Lee Sing and the crew of the Fang 
confined below.” 

The boat left the Deer, and headed for the Grade, 
Captain Senkil leaped alertly aboard and said: 

“I want to talk to you three fellows. Come into 
the cabin.” 

They hurried below, and Kennedy asked breath- 
lessly: 

“What’s up. Captain? Have you pinched the 
pirate ?” 

Senkil smiled, and leaned back in his chair. It 
was evident he was pleased with himself, and a 
bearer of glad tidings. 

“Yes, I got ’em, darn ’em!” he said. “That is, 
most of them. One of the sailors was missing, and 
I can’t make out what has become of him. Lee 
Sing says the man deserted in a small boat. I can’t 
believe that. There’s something behind it.” 


142 Captain Pete in Alaska 

^‘Was the missing man named Ah Fat?” inquired 
Joe Floyd. 

''Yes,” replied Senkil, with a twinkle of interest. 
"Why?” 

"That’s part of the story I didn’t tell you, Cap- 
tain Senkil,” began Pete. "I guess you’ll have to 
hear the yarn from beginning to end.” 

"Tell me about Ah Fat, now!” said the naval 
officer. 

"He was a friend of Floyd’s, and a spy in the 
enemy’s camp,” answered Pete. 

"By the Great Horn Spoon !” said Joe, dropping 
his syllables one by one. "If they have made away 
with Ah Fat — ” 

"It looks as if he might have followed Blondin,” 
said Kennedy. 

"Who’s Blondin?” asked Senkil. 

In response Pete told the tale of the inception of 
the "Yellowbird Gold Mining Company” from the 
very beginning, laying bare all the points he had 
hitherto kept from the captain of the Deer, 

"I guess Kennedy is right,” remarked that in- 
dividual at the conclusion of the story. 

Pete had been doing some thinking while Ke 
talked, and now he asked : 

"Do you know what interval elapsed between Ah' 
Fat’s disappearance, and your capture of the 
sealer? And where was the Dragon* s Fang at 
the time they say he went adrift in the open boat?” 


143 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘"Lee Sing states,” said the officer, ‘'that they 
were fifty or sixty miles north of the Pribilofs and 
he ‘cut his lucky’ the day before I appeared.” 

“What did you arrest the pirate for ?” asked Pete, 
curiously. 

“What do you think?” he exclaimed, his face 
hardening. “Those lawless skunks got into a herd 
of females carrying young, on one of the small 
islands, and had started in to slaughter them! I 
would like to hang the fellow. Keel-hauling is too 
good for such men.” 

All knew enough about the fur seal industry to 
comprehend the enormity of this offense. Lee Sing 
must have been utterly unrestrained by fear of the 

law. 

“What is the upshot of it all ?” inquired Kennedy. 

“Why,” explained Senkil, “I put a prize crew 
aboard the Dragons Fang, and they are bringing 
her in.” 

“We saw her!” confirmed the others. 

“Lee Sing, and Wong are hand-cuffed together 
in my strong-room. The other four — two low- 
down renegades of white men, and two Chinamen — 
are confined in the hold. As soon as I get an op- 
portunity — ril send them to the nearest place where 
they can be tried by a United States Court.” 

“And the schooner ?” inquired Pete. 

“Libelled, of course. She’ll lie here to await the 
Court’s action.” 


144 Captain Pete in Alaska 

''Her owner in Victoria will be glad to hear it,” 
observed Pete. "Now he stands some chance of 
getting his property back.” 

"You seem pretty certain it’s stolen,” commented 
Senkil. 

"Sure thing !” they all affirmed. 

After Senkil’s departure, Joe Floyd remained in 
thought. Kennedy and Pete knew his mind was 
occupied with the subject of Ah Fat. Although 
not interested to the same extent as Joe they both 
had a feeling that the probable fate of Floyd’s 
Chinese ally had been more or less caused through 
his efforts in their behalf. 

"By the Great Horn Spoon!” said Joe, suddenly 
awaking from his moodiness. "If I was boss of this 
outfit. Captain Pete, I’d get steam up mighty quick, 
and head for that spot north of the Pribilofs where 
Lee Sing says Ah Fat cut loose from him.” 

"Do you suppose that was the way of it?” asked 
Pete. 

"This is how I got it figured out,” answered Joe. 
"You fellows didn’t know Ah Fat, but I want to tell 
you he wasn’t no fool Chinaman. I reckon that 
even Lee Sing would have some trouble in pulling 
the wool over Fat’s eyes. It seems possible Lee 
Sing and Wong may have got a notion he wasn’t 
playing straight with them. If that was so I’d 
back Ah Fat to know what they were thinking about 
as soon as it formed in their minds. Then he’d 
say to himself that he had about as much chance of 


145 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

a healthy life on board the Dragon's Fang as a snow 
ball in a bonfire. So, don’t you see he’d naturally 
take to the boat, and the open sea, before he’d trust 
himself to the tender mercies of that gang of wild 
beasts.” 

“Right you are,” said Kennedy, perfectly con- 
vinced. 

“When do you want to start, Joe?” inquired Cap- 
tain Pete. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE GRACIE RESCUES AH FAT, AND BECOMES 
INVOLVED IN THE ICE-PACK 

T T being decided to start at once in search of the 
missing Ah Fat, Pete went over to the Deer to 
tell his friend the captain the course they had de- 
termined on. 

‘T’m glad you came,” said Senkil. ‘T wanted to 
see you. I have been thinking it might be the 
proper thing to make a search after Floyd's friend. 
Ah Fat.” 

‘^So have we,” returned Pete. ‘We're going to 
start right away, and I came to let you know.” 

“Two are better than one,” answered Senkil. 
“It seems possible a man's life is at stake. We can 
cover the ground in shorter time. The castaway 
will be in extremity, and time may be the last im- 
portance.” 

“What will you do with your prisoners?” asked 
Pete, as he saw a puff of vapor come out of the 
Grade's steam pipe. 

“There's a calaboose on shore,” said Senkil. 
“The company used to put their ‘drunks’ in it. I 
reckon it's not very comfortable,, but Chinese pirates 
cannot be choosers.” 


146 


147 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘‘Is it secure?’’ inquired Pete. 

“I guess so,” he replied. “Anyhow, if they es- 
caped I don’t see how they could get out of my 
reach. I’ve a long arm up here.” 

“Well then, I’m off!” concluded our hero. 

“By the way,” exclaimed the naval officer. “I 
came near forgetting ! Lee Sing wants to see you.” 

Pete looked astonished, and as if he did not rec- 
ognize the necessity of the desired interview. 

“You’d better see him,” urged Senkil. “He may 
tell you something you want to know.” 

“Nit!” slangily returned Pete. “He’s too fly.” 

“Well, try him anyhow. It won’t do any harm.” 

He accompanied Pete to the door of the strong- 
room, and our hero entered. Lee Sing and Wong 
were seated side by side on the deck. Their prox- 
imity was not a matter of choice, for the pirate chief 
and his mate were linked together by steel hand- 
cuffs attached to their wrists. Pete reflected that 
the partners in iniquity were joined together by 
spiritual fetters of crime as well as material ones 
of metal. 

“I accidentally heard you were in port,” remarked 
Lee Sing, “and asked this unjust man who has de- 
prived us of our liberty, to allow me to speak to 
you.” 

“Yes,” answered Captain Pete, who hardly knew 
what to say. “What can I do for you?” 

“Nothing,” answered the pirate, unexpectedly. 
“Perhaps, on the contrary, I can do something for 


148 Captain Pete in Alaska 

you. Would you like to have Blondin’s chart of the 
creek where he discovered the placer mine 

You might have knocked Captain Pete down with 
a feather duster. Why on earth should the man 
take this tack. Pete knew he had some hidden 
motive for the frank revelation of his connection 
with the Blondin murder that his words implied. 
But a moment's thought assured him that what- 
ever the pirate's intentions were, it would be to the 
advantage of the stock holders in the ^'Yellowbird 
Gold Mining Company" if he secured the French- 
man's chart. So he said with an assumption of 
ease he was far from feeling: 

''Of course I'd like to have it. I'm in search of 
that mine." 

"Naturally," smiled Lee Sing. 

He thrust the hand not confined by the irons into 
the breast of his blouse, and brought out a small 
leather-covered blank book. He held it on the deck 
by his manacled elbow, and turned the leaves over 
until he came to a page containing a rough pencil 
draft. Pete drew nearer, and gazed with all his 
eyes. It was unquestionably the representation 
the unlettered Frenchman had made of the place 
where he found the gold. Viewing it with the key 
of the directions Kennedy had received from the 
murdered man, he saw at a glance it was intended 
to be a picture of the mouth of the creek ; the pecul- 
iar sand bar in front, and the snow-clothed moun- 
tain with twin peaks in the background. Beneath 


149 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

it, and covering the ensuing page, were a number of 
almost illegible characters which he believed to be 
the field notes — as a surveyor would call them — of 
the unfortunate gold seeker. 

'Take it!’’ resumed Lee Sing. "It looks as if 
it will be of no service to me, and you are heartily 
welcome to it.” 

"Is there something I can do for you in return 
for this, Lee Sing?” asked Pete, earnestly. "If it 
is lawful I will gladly help you.” 

"No,” answered the redoubtable Chinaman, and 
Pete fancied he saw a trace of sadness in the 
pirate’s face. "I know what it means to be in the 
clutch of United States law on a charge of this 
kind. There seems no escape, and I must pay the 
penalty. Probably imprisonment for a long term 
of years.” 

For the first time in their acquaintance it oc- 
curred to Pete to feel sorry for this man. He ad- 
mired the oriental hardihood with which he ac- 
cepted his fate, and resigned himself to the conse- 
quences his acts had earned. Our hero put the 
notebook in his pocket, and returned to Captain 
Senkil. 

If he had seen the pirate’s face, and heard his 
words to Wong after the door had closed, his heart 
would not have been inclined to pity. 

"The young fool thinks I am weakening, and 
feels sorry for me,” he said to his mate. His 


150 Captain Pete in Alaska 

smooth face had assumed an expression of malig- 
nant ferocity. 

'Why did you give him the map?’^ grunted 
Wong. They were speaking in the Chinese dia- 
lect. 

'T want those white barbarians to find the creek, 
and gather the gold. When we escape — as weVe 
escaped before, Old Wong — wedl flay them alive, 
and take the treasure. If we do not get free what 
odds about the gold.’' 

Wong grunted in acquiescence. 

The Grade started on her search at once. Floyd 
fed the fire, and they forged rapidly ahead. In 
spite of their haste, the Deer picked them up four or 
five hours later, and the two laid their course 
straight for St. Paul Island. They sighted it at 
noon the next day, but did not stop. It had been 
agreed that one should take a wide circle to the 
east, and the other to the westward, and both re- 
turn on converging lines to cover as much terri- 
tory as possible. 

On the ensuing day the Grade ran into an ice 
field about one hundred miles northeast of St. Paul. 
The waters in front were covered with the dirty, 
blue-green cakes of gelidity to the edge of the 
horizon. Floyd took Pete’s glasses, and climbed 
the rigging forward. After gazing into the frozen 
expanse ahead for a moment he suddenly threw up 
his hands with a yell of exultation. The next mo- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 15 1 

ment he slipped down the swifter, and was along- 
side of Captain Pete. 

‘‘Oif there he exclaimed, pointing ahead. 
saw a skiff on an ice floe! I think a man was sit- 
ting on the bow 

‘‘How far in the ice-pack?^’ queried Pete, with a 
serious face. 

“Two or three miles,'’ he answered. 

They went to the bow, and examined the ice-field 
with careful attention. The boat could be plainly 
discerned. Both distinguished the figure of the 
Chinaman, apparently sitting despondently on the 
thwart with his head bowed on his breast. Pete 
blew the whistle repeatedly, but it did not arouse him 
from his stupor. It was evident he was in a bad 
way. 

As they gazed one of those transitions which 
constantly occur in these fields took place. As if 
in obedience to the command of some directing 
power the floes in front of the stem of the Grade 
began to undulate. The next moment a channel 
opened, extending each moment further until it al- 
most reached the cake on which Ah Fat was 
marooned. Pete hesitated. Then with a wave of 
his hand he directed the course of the Grade, and 
it entered the broadening ribbon of water. Prov- 
identially it grew wider as they advanced. Pres- 
ently with a joyful shout Floyd leaped upon the ice, 
and ran to Ah Fat. The man had been sitting 
humped upon the gunwale of the skiff. He tried 


152 Captain Pete in Alaska 

to rise to his feet, but the effort was beyond him, 
and he sank back at full length. 

Joe raised him in his arms, and brought him to 
the Grade. Kennedy's hasty examination of the 
sufferer disclosed the fact that his left leg had 
been broken below the knee. This, and exhaus- 
tion from lack of food had reduced him to his help- 
less condition. 

In a few minutes he regained his senses, and was 
able to answer Joe's questions. Lee Sing had heard 
Scar-faced Jake say he had seen Floyd and Ah Fat 
talking together. The pirate captain put him 
through what the metropolitan police call the '‘third 
degree." Ah Fat had defended himself so plausi- 
bly Lee Sing could not be positive of his treachery, 
but the coolie knew the man, and realized the seri- 
ousness of his danger. The same evening he had 
stolen the boat, and sneaked away in the dusk of 
the Arctic night from the Dragon's Fang. He had 
been discovered by Wong, but succeeded in getting 
into a drifting field of ice where his pursuers could 
not follow. 

While Joe was occupied with his Chinese friend, 
Pete succeeded in turning the Grade's head toward 
the open water, and was retracing his steps. An- 
other unexpected sea change however, massed the 
ice and closed the channel by which he had come in. 
On the other hand it continued to broaden and open 
further towards the interior of the sea of ice. The 
Captain of the Grade felt he had committed an in- 



He tried to rise to his feet 





4 



Captain Pete in Alaska 


153 


discretion by allowing his sympathy to lead him into 
this dangerous position, and promptly called Ken- 
nedy, and Joe, and Tom Long to a consultation. 
Scotch Jimmy was at the wheel. 

Our adventurers realized their peril at a glance. 
As they talked they saw the ice pack mass more 
solidly. The open spot surrounding the Grade re- 
mained intact. Pete confessed he was at a loss to 
suggest a means of escape, and Floyd looked seri- 
ous. It fell to Kennedy to suggest a course of 
action : 

'‘What’s the matter with going ahead?” asked 
he. "If Pm not mistaken this channel in front 
points in the direction of the Yukon. As far as 
I can see we’ve got as much chance^ and perhaps 
more, to come out on the northeast edge of this field 
of ice, as we have to bore our way back.” 

Pete consulted Floyd with his eyes. The rancher 
was evidently of Kennedy’s opinion. 

"All right,” said he. "Here goes for the Yukon. 
Hard down with your wheel, Jimmy.” 

The Grade had a full head of steam, and spun 
around on her heel like a top. She headed up 
through the passage at a ten knot gait, and the 
members of the "Yellowbird Gold Mining Com- 
pany” started on the second stage of their journey. 

Ah Fat recuperated rapidly. Kennedy and 
Floyd had much experience with injuries of this 
kind, and their rude surgery speedily made him 
comfortable. They reduced the fracture, and Ken- 


154 Captain Pete in Alaska 

nedy manufactured a pair of splints from barrel 
staves, and bound them on the injured leg so firmly 
that the bone had a chance to knit at the first inten- 
tion. The Chinaman told them he had been caught 
the day before between two cakes of ice, and before 
he could get loose heard the bone crack like a pistol 
shot. The skiff was nearby, and with his last 
atom of strength he crawled to her and lay on the 
thwart he had occupied when they found him. In 
his haste to get away he had not been able to secure 
any food, and the three days he had been adrift 
without eating, together with the accident, had 
about drained his vitality. 

Pete kept his fires roaring for he was determined 
to make all the progress he could in the desired 
direction. To his delight the channel in front con- 
tinued open, and by his dead reckoning he calculated 
they must have made a hundred miles to the north- 
east before their advance was checked. During 
this time there had been a fresh westerly breeze 
which Pete thought exerted some unexplained in- 
fluence on the ice formation. 

At last the opening began to contract. Then 
the channel closed ahead of the Grade and at the 
same moment a crevice appeared to the southward. 
It widened under Pete’s gaze, and began like the 
first one to extend far into the interior of the pack. 
There was no room for hesitation, and no second 
choice. Pete entered the new channel, and this 
time they were speeding away from her goal. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 155 

'‘By the Tongue of the Ant Bear!’’ ejaculated 
Kennedy, who stood beside Pete. "It looks dickie, 
don’t it?” 

"We’re in trouble I’m afraid,” acknowledged 
Pete. He added after a moment. "Here’s where 
my false bow comes in.” 

He called all hands except the helmsman, and 
they carried up the marked timbers, and put them 
together over the head, and when the job was ac- 
complished our hero felt more secure for it seemed 
probable this unstable passage he was following 
might close with as little notice as the first. In 
that case the Grade would become a dot in the sea 
of ice. The field was by no means a continuous 
and closely knitted mass, but composed of pieces, 
large and small, floating separately in the sea. 
Even with the Grade involved in it he did not an- 
ticipate any great danger unless he attempted to go 
ahead at injudicious speed, or some condition 
should cause the floes to become more closely bound 
together. In either of these events the hull of the 
little vessel was in danger from the grinding im- 
pact of the jagged cakes. 

The company of the Grade had full reliance on 
their leader’s seamanship, and believed that if any- 
one was competent to extricate them from their 
plight, he was the man. He saw how they felt, and 
it increased his sense of responsibility. Every 
faculty the lad possessed was stretched to its full- 
est tension. The call on his manhood was met by 


156 Captain Pete in Alaska 

a determination to bring them through the danger 
if it was in mortal man to accomplish the task. He 
did not leave his station forward an instant. 
While the others snatched their hasty meals below, 
he contented himself with a sandwich and a tin pot 
of coffee brought to him by the faithful Long Tom. 

He sent the Grade ahead only at quarter speed 
as he monotonously paced from rail to rail, from 
starboard to port, in a ceaseless wild-beast prowl 
that was indicative of his state of mind. All in a 
moment what he had feared from the first took 
place. The ice in front suddenly blotted out the 
cl\annel along which he had been cautiously pro- 
ceeding, and they were tossing, as helpless as a log 
of driftwood, in the middle of the vast area of floes. 

The others gathered at the rail, and gazed help- 
lessly at the gently moving chunks of ice. Pete 
did not interrupt his tramp from bulwark to bul- 
wark. The engine was shut off, and the blades of 
the screw stopped revolving. Minute after min- 
ute elapsed, and the pack grew no thicker. At the 
end of a half hour of strained attention Kennedy 
suddenly boiled over : 

'Tor God's sake, Pete," he burst out, "stop that 
tramping up and down and say something ! You're 
like a wild animal in a cage." 

Pete straightened his shoulders and turned with 
a dogged smile to the rest : 

"Something has got to go!" he said. "If the 
Grade can't, I must. However, I believe we will 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


157 


come out all right if we have a bit of luck. So far 
as I can see we’re safe now, so long as we haven’t 
got way on, as we were in the channel. It’s the 
possibility of a grind I’m afraid of. But it would 
take a heavy gale to shake this vast field of ice into 
motion, and there’s no danger at this season of the 
year of its freezing hard enough to nip us. I be- 
lieve,” he concluded triumphantly, ‘'that the worst 
we have to anticipate is drifting around in the pack 
for a week or two.” 

“That’s good news !” said Kennedy. “If there’s 
no danger we may as well be here as in Unalaska or 
Sitka.” 

“I bet Captain Senkil is wondering what has be- 
come of us,” remarked Pete. “I wish we could tell 
him we found Ah Fat.” 

“I reckon he knows we can take as good care of 
ourselves as the next,” Floyd said. 


CHAPTER XIV 


LEE SING AND THE PIRATES ESCAPE, AND FOLLOW 
THE GRACIE INTO THE SEA OF ICE 

W HILE the Grade was lying ice-bound in the 
Bering Sea, events were transpiring at Un- 
alaska which will interest the reader. 

Captain Senkil arrived again off St. Paul Island 
on the evening the crew of the Grade rescued Ah 
Fat. He was disappointed that his consort was not 
in sight, and lay to awaiting her arrival. When she 
did not make her appearance by the next morning, 
he began to fear some mishap. With this idea he 
started on a voyage of discovery. When he ar- 
rived at a point some seventy-five miles northeast 
of the island, he found the waters covered by an 
impassable field of floe ice. 

The naval officer had much experience in these 
latitudes, and his mind rapidly ran over all possi- 
ble happenings to find one that could account for 
the Grade’s disappearance. He arrived at a con- 
clusion very near the truth. Of course, he could 
not understand that our adventurers had deliber- 
ately made their way into the bosom of the ice 
pack with the purpose of rescuing the Chinaman, 
iS8 


159 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

but he was satisfied the little vessel had become en- 
compassed among the floes, and either because of 
the general drift, or because they had followed 
some illusive channel opening before them, been 
carried so far afield they could not extricate them- 
selves. Further reflection convinced him that if 
Captain Pete found himself surrounded he would 
decide to go ahead rather than attempt to come 
back to Unalaska. He hoped they had found the 
missing man, but whether they had or not felt sure 
he would see no more of the adventurers for the 
present. 

Having exhausted all reasonable efforts to find 
either Ah Fat or the Grade he turned back to Un- 
alaska. On entering the little harbor he glanced 
toward the place where he had left the Dragon's 
Fang securely moored. 

The sealing schooner was not there! ^ 

A sudden misgiving seized the naval officer’s 
heart. Before the Deer came to anchor, he 
dropped into a small boat and made his way to 
shore. The harbor master, who was also chief cus- 
toms officer, and administrative head of the town, 
met him in perturbation at the landing: 

‘'Captain Senkil,” he stammered in nervous haste, 
“your prisoners broke out of the calaboose last 
night.” 

“Where is the schooner?” demanded the officer. 

“She was gone from the harbor this morning 
too.” 


i6o Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘'And the man I left on board as care-taker?’' 
inquired Scnkil. 

“We found him gagged and bound in a skiff in 
which he had drifted ashore.” 

“Take me to him at once,” said the officer 
shortly. 

The man was at the harbor master’s house. He 
Was a hardy sailor who had joined the navy in San 
Francisco. Senkil had no doubt of his good faith, 
but was anxious to gain some clue from him to the 
movements of the Chinamen. The sailor was cast 
down at having allowed himself to be kidnapped 
while on watch, but told a straight-forward story. 
He had been smoking a pipe on the ^fter deck with- 
out the faintest idea there was any reason for vig- 
ilance. A noose had been flung about his neck, and 
he was hauled over backward without a chance to 
resist. A huge misshapen devil of a Chinaman — 
evidently Wong — had sprung upon his breast, and 
pinioned his arms to the deck. Several others 
aided, and he was tied and gagged before he even 
had an opportunity to howl for help. Then they 
had put him in the boat, and shoved it away from 
the side. He heard them get the anchor aboard 
the Dragon* s Fang, and make sail. The next thing 
he knew his boat grounded on the beach, and he lay 
there until an Esquimau woman released him. 
The schooner had disappeared. 

Senkil was mad clear through. He could hardly 
restrain his rage, but after a moment’s thought he 


Captain Pete in Alaska i6i 

made his way to the calaboose. It was a little stone 
building erected years before, and probably at that 
time a secure dungeon, but the salt damp had crum- 
bled the mortar, and it had been an easy task for 
the Chinamen to make a hole large enough for 
them to crawl out. An iron marline spike lay on 
the stone floor of the cell, and evidently had been 
used to make the opening in the wall. 

'Tm afraid this is going to make more trouble 
for Captain Pete and his friends,’’ muttered Sen- 
kil. ^‘Not but what I am to blame for leaving that 
gang of desperadoes in this ramshackly jail with- 
out putting a guard over them. Well, Lee Sing 
has got the best of this round. I hope I’ll get an- 
other chance at him.” 

He returned to the Deer, and in twenty minutes 
was flying back toward the Pribilof Islands. He 
was certain Lee Sing would lay his course toward 
the north, and take any desperate chance to escape. 
His judgment was confirmed when he arrived on 
the boundary of the ice field. Far in the middle of 
the pack he could discern two faint upright black 
lines, like pencils showing against the lowering sky 
behind. 

'That’s the Dragon's Fang!" he said to himself 
as he put his glasses into the case. "Now the fat’s 
in the fire ! The Grade is in the ice, and they will 
make for the Yukon as fast as they can, believing 
Lee Sing and the rest of his pirates to be in jail in 
Unalaska. The drift may even bring them to- 


1 62 Captain Pete in Alaska 

gether before they reach the delta, or by George! 
Lee Sing may get there first. I wish I could warn 
Captain Pete. It’s a devil of a mess, and I am 
afraid some of it is my fault.” 

The drift had carried the Grade to a point within 
a couple of hundred miles of the Arctic Circle. It 
had been an anxious time. Often crevices opened 
in the pack, and Pete, who kept a full head of steam, 
would follow them, hoping the ribbon of clear water 
might lead to some outlet. Time after time the 
hope proved illusive. Once they had made fifty 
miles following such a clmnnel in the direction of 
the Alaskan coast. Then this had closed, and an- 
other one to the northward opened up. Pete did 
not think it worth while to follow this. He was 
sure the ice would grow thicker towards the mouth 
of Bering Strait, beside becoming dangerous be- 
cause of its concentration. 

They had now been in the ice field ten days. At 
night the sun barely dipped below the murky, fog- 
bound horizon. The daylight continued with 
scarcely perceptible diminution the whole twenty- 
four hours. Partly owing to his rugged constitu- 
tion, and partly to Joe Floyd’s nursing. Ah Fat’s 
leg had nearly healed. The bone seemed to have 
knit firmly, and Joe had manufactured a rude crutch 
with which the coolie managed to hobble around the 
deck. He had become a favorite with the Grade's 
crew, and announced his intention of remaining 
with them as long as they cared to keep him. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 163 

When Captain Pete came on deck one morning 
near the end of June it was apparent to him that a 
change was imminent. The sky was overcast, and 
the face of the sun red and lowering. He hastily 
consulted the barometer. It had fallen, and indi- 
cated heavy weather. As he anxiously examined 
the ice field to the west, Floyd and Kennedy joined 
him. 

‘'You look worried. Captain Pete,’' observed 
Kennedy. “Do you think we are going to have a 
storm ?” 

“Yes!” replied our hero. “The barometer has 
fallen. It would not make much difference if we 
occupied the position we did three or four days ago, 
but we are close on the eastern edge of the pack, and 
I am afraid this gale coming from the northwest is 
going to set these floes tossing about in the water. 
If one of those heavy fellows,” he pointed to a cake 
that projected seven or eight feet above the water, 
“should swing in against our hull it would knock a 
hole through the bottom big enough to let in the 
whole Bering Sea. Or if it jounced against the 
screw it would break the blades short off, and leave 
us a helpless wreck.” 

They stood in silence looking out over the ice. 
The floes were no longer tranquil. They tossed to 
and fro, and occasionally one would grind viciously 
against a second. Captain Pete was looking 
through the glass toward the west. Suddenly he 
exclaimed : 


164 Captain Pete in Alaska 

''By Jove, there’s clear water ahead! We are 
almost out of the ice field ! If we can carry 
through for two hours longer, everything will be 
lovely.” 

The young adventurer redoubled his caution and 
vigilance. He stood on the chocks at the bow of 
the Grade, and scanned with eager eye every open- 
ing crack in the ice. A wave of his hand to right 
or left, and Tom Long, at the wheel, put the helm 
to starboard or to port. Foot by foot, almost inch 
by inch, he forced the vessel towards the open 
water. As they progressed the floes became more 
active, because they had more room, and were fewer 
in number. At last he conned the little vessel along 
through a channel hardly wide enough to permit of 
her passage, rounded a miniature iceberg that 
barred her path, and she suddenly shot into the open 
sea. 

Pete pulled the whistle cord, and let out a tri- 
umphant screech as he took off his hat, and the 
others burst into an unanimous hurrah that could 
have been heard a mile away. 

"Full speed ahead,” said the lad. "And with 
good luck we’ll reach the Yukon delta inside of 
twenty-four hours.” 

He laid his course by compass, and did not spare 
coal. Although the trip through the ice field had 
caused much expenditure of fuel, he had still about 
three tons on board. Barring accidents this was 
enough to carry them into the mouth of the great 


Captain Pete in Alaska 165 

river. Once inside he was certain to get wood in 
plenty. In case the coal gave out before he reached 
the delta, he was at any rate in an open sea. He 
could rely on canvas in place of steam. 

The adventurers were in high spirits. In his 
elation, Kennedy swore many still more astonish- 
ing oaths, dealing with the tongues and stripes and 
tails of wild animals, than he had hitherto been able 
to conjure up. Ah Fat cast his crutches away as 
if he no longer needed their support. The gloomy 
atmosphere which had hung over the expedition 
disappeared, and all hands were in the blithest 
spirits. Of course this condition of affairs was 
largely founded on their assumption that Lee Sing 
and the crew of the Dragon's Fang were no longer 
a constantly threatening possibility. If they had 
known the pirates had broken loose from the cala- 
boose and recaptured the sealer, even the relief of 
escaping from that terrible ice-field would not have 
brought about their present confidence in the suc- 
cessful prosecution of their gold hunting. 

They had left the ice behind them. Even iso- 
lated floes were absent. On the forenoon of the 
second day after reaching clear water, Tom Long, 
who was busy forward, suddenly let out a long 
drawn howl: 

^Tand hoT’ 

It was low ground, eight or nine miles directly 
in front of the bowsprit of the Grade. It was dis- 
mal, and bare of vegetation. 


1 66 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Floyd and Kennedy turned with elated faces to 
Captain Pete : 

''I have been expecting it for an hour or so/’ said 
he. ‘^If it hadn’t been for the murkiness we’d have 
seen it before. As nearly as I can figure we are 
striking the coast between the two main outlets of 
the river. We will take the northern mouth which 
is not far distant from St. Michael. There is a 
navigable channel where vessels of greater draft 
than ours find no difficulty in entering. I suppose 
we should have a pilot, and it’s possible we may pick 
up some Indian or Esquimau, or wandering white 
man.” 

In an hour they came in plain view of the delta. 
It did not look as any of them expected. A broad 
sand-flat at least twenty miles wide extended be- 
tween low, tundra-covered banks to the north and 
south. In places the sand glistened in the sun 
barely covered with water. In others there seemed 
considerable depth and no current to speak of. 
Half a dozen streams of varying width seemed to 
be the main agents in carrying the flood from the 
mighty Yukon into the sea. The most promising 
was at least three hundred feet across, and the 
turbid greenness of the water indicated consider- 
able depth. It was nevertheless a tortuous stream 
which wandered here and there, from one bank to 
the other over the whole delta, and offered puzzling 
problems to the navigator unacquainted with its 
intricacies. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 167 

There remained only a ton of coal in the Grade's 
bunker. The river banks on both sides were bare 
of trees or even shrubbery, and as far as they could 
see the land consisted of tundra. This is a thick, 
heavy moss, covering the surface of the soil in west- 
ern Alaska to a depth of two and three feet. It 
was an absurdity to think of sailing against the cur- 
rent raging down from the parent stream. Pete 
communicated his quandary to the others and Ah 
Fat pointed out a little island some half a mile 
up stream. A mass of drift wood had been cast 
ashore on this spot. It was a mass of tangle con- 
sisting of roots and branches interspersed with the 
water-soaked trunks of trees that had been washed 
away from the banks further in the interior by the 
spring freshets. 

‘'Get out your cross-cut saws 1 " commanded Pete. 
“We’re going to wood up.” 

The Grade was turned into the channel. The 
lad conned her with anxious care. The current 
ran about five miles an hour, but he selected the 
more sluggish waters, and finally arrived at the 
spot for which he aimed. A light grappling 
anchor was cast overboard. Long Tom leaped 
into the water after it, and carrying it to the beach 
sank its fluke deep into the gravel. The water 
came to their arm-pits as they waded ashore, and 
the power of the current almost tore them from 
their feet, but they held their axes and saws above 
their heads, and succeeded in reaching the timber. 


1 68 Captain Pete in Alaska 

This work suited Floyd, who was an expert log- 
ger. None of the others had much practical 
knowledge, and the rancher took charge of the 
gang. They cleared away the tangle with their 
axes until they could work to advantage. Floyd 
had his eye on a birch trunk several feet in diam- 
eter. When this was uncovered he made his men 
saw it into three-foot lengths. While they were 
occupied with the task, he returned to the Grade, 
He came ashore again with a heavy beetle and a 
number of iron wedges. In an incredibly short 
time he split the sections into pieces available for 
the furnace of the tug. They found it difficult to 
get the wood on board through the strong current 
and deep water, and Floyd finally made the cord- 
wood into a raft, and hauled it off by a rope to 
the vessel. The birch trunk had been water- 
soaked during its long submergence, but the 
rancher said it had partially dried out, and would 
make steam nearly as well as coal. 

Fighting their way up stream was slow work, 
and kept every one busy. There was plenty of 
water for the Grade, for Pete had removed his 
''detachable keel,^^ but where it was deepest the 
current was usually the swiftest, and occasionally 
boulders in the stream made a keen lookout im- 
perative. At times the channel contracted to a 
width scarcely permitting the converted tug boat 
to wriggle her tortuous way through the passage. 
At other places it was wide and deep, and the water 


Captain Pete in Alaska 169 

foamed down with all the force of its mighty parent 
behind it. 

It was now midnight, although the Arctic sun 
still illumined the sky, and all hands had been work- 
ing to their full capacity during the past ten hours. 
When they had gained a distance of about twenty 
miles to the westward they came to a point where 
another stream, running north, was discovered. 
Beyond this their course lay wide and unobstructed 
before them. An opportune bar projecting from 
the shore just beyond the confluence of the two 
streams formed a quiet, little harbor, into which 
Pete steered the Grade. The anchor was dropped 
overboard, the fire banked, and all hands turned 
into their bunks for a much needed rest. 


CHAPTER XV 


THE LOSS OF THE DRAGON's FANG> AND A PLOT TO 
REPLACE HER 

I N the meantime. the Dragon's Fang was not mak- 
ing so good weather of it. Captain SenkiFs 
surmise had been correct. It was the sealing 
schooner whose masts he had seen outlined against 
the sky. Lee Sing and Wong were in the best of 
humor over their escape. They felt there was only 
one course to pursue, and that was straight to the 
Yukon River, even if they had to make their way 
through or over the ice. Lee Sing did not hesitate 
when he found a channel leading into the pack. 
He had a fair wind, and recklessly pressed the 
Dragon's Fang into the very midst of the frozen 
fastness. As he had expected, the opening closed 
behind him, and they were prisoners. Their posi- 
tion would have been dangerous and perplexing 
enough, even if they had been equipped with steam 
power, but without they drifted helplessly. 

Lee Sing and Wong were skillful sailors, and 
through previous experience somewhat acquainted 
with the conditions surrounding them, but both felt 
they had very little choice in the matter of the path 
to liberty, and either would have perished in the 
170 


Captain Pete in Alaska 171 

frozen sea rather than have met the fate that 
threatened them if again captured by the American 
officer. As long as they remained in the ice^ they 
were absolutely safe from pursuit. Sooner or 
later, in the course of ten or fifteen days, they knew 
they would emerge somewhere if their bottom had 
not been stoven in before that event. 

Under Lee Sing’s directions, Wong manufac- 
tured a number of heavy rope-fenders, and a sharp 
lookout was kept to discover the proximity of any 
dangerous cake of ice. Time and again when such 
an one threatened destruction, the clever rascals 
lowered the fenders in time to avert disaster. It 
was heart-breaking work, but the pirate and his 
mate fought the elements with a gallantry worthy 
of a better cause. 

Lacking steam power, they were unable to fol- 
low the occasional channels which opened in the 
line of their destination. They attempted to make 
their way under canvas, but the passages were too 
narrow. The peril of running against one of the 
larger cakes was so great, and the consequences 
would be so disastrous that they concluded the 
hazard was too much against them. Nevertheless, 
by constant and watchful care, they managed to 
hold on without catastrophe. 

The Dragon's Fang entered the ice field near the 
Pribilof Islands, two days after the Grade had 
gone into the pack to rescue Ah Fat. The pirates 
must have drifted almost directly towards the 


172 Captain Pete in Alaska 

coast of Alaska. In spite of Captain Pete's 
anxious seamanship and the steam power of the 
Grade, the Dragon's Dangers found themselves on 
the edge of the ice a few miles south of the latitude 
of St. Michael on the evening of the same day that 
Captain Pete had entered the delta. The astonish- 
ing good fortune which had carried Lee Sing so 
far on his way now seemed all at once to desert 
him. In the fury of the same storm which had 
lashed the ice into tumult as Captain Pete emerged, 
the Chinamen met their downfall. 

A thick, triangular cake, some fifteen feet across, 
was washed by the turbulent waves alongside of 
the sealer. Wong was promptly on hand with 
rope fender to interpose between it and the sealer's 
side, but an unforeseen casualty set their precau- 
tions at naught. The floe extended eight or nine 
feet in the air, and probably forty below the sur- 
face. As Wong with his crew leaned over the 
side, manoeuvring the fender to receive the impact, 
the floe suddenly began to turn end for end in the 
water. As the lower part came swishing through 
the brine, the sailors let go of the fender and fell 
back in terror. Wong's voice was raised in sud- 
den command, and Lee Sing sprang to the spot. 
At the same moment the great cake completed its 
revolution, its weight making the upturn of the 
lower point of ice irresistible. It struck fairly 
across the bottom of the sealer amidships, and 


Captain Pete in Alaska 173 

cracked its stem as if the solid timbers had been 
made of pipe clay. 

The stricken schooner shivered like a strong 
man struck with sudden death, reeled drunkenly, 
and began to settle. Lee Sing and his mate saw 
at a glance that the damage was irremediable. 
Two stoutly-built dories, which they had used in 
their sealing operations, were on the deck forward. 
They launched them one after the other. There 
was no time to provision them. The Dragons 
Fang lurched from side to side, and sank foot by 
foot until her decks were awash. With a cry of 
warning, Lee Sing and Wong, who each headed 
a boat, pushed off to a safe distance before the final 
catastrophe. The little vessel wallowed a moment, 
a quiver ran through her oak frame, and with a 
sullen plunge she dove head-first into the depths 
of the Bering Sea. 

Lee Sing, with Scar-faced Jake, and Ah Tan, 
one of the Chinese crew, occupied the first dory, 
and Wong, with Todd and Chow, the other China- 
man, were in the second. As they tossed in the 
widening ripple, Lee Sing beckoned Wong to come 
nearer. He had kept his position by dead reckon- 
ing, and was, therefore, aware he must be near the 
coast, and probably within fifteen or twenty miles 
of one of the mouths of the Yukon. 

On the whole, the indomitable pirate chief was 
not greatly cast down by the foundering of the 


174 Captain Pete in Alaska 

schooner, for, as he pointed out to his mate, it had 
brought them almost to their destination. Fur- 
thermore, possession of the craft was dangerous, 
as it was liable to be discovered they had stolen it. 
They would not only lose it in that case, but have 
to pay the penalty. It had disappeared now, and 
could not be brought in evidence against them. 
The pirate chief had foreseen that they could not 
ascend the Yukon River in it, against the rapid 
current. 

‘‘After all. Old Wong,’^ he said, “we have been 
in worse predicaments than our present one.^’ 

“Nothing to eat!’’ remarked Wong suggestively. 

“Pooh!” said the chief. “Five hours’ rowing 
will bring us to the shore. It’s not the first time 
we have hunted food along the beach.” 

“No fire arms,” reminded the mate, “or weapons 
of any kind.” 

“If we meet white barbarians, we’ll take theirs,” 
said the pirate. “Who knows! We may run 
across the Graded* 

This possibility made Wong show his fangs in 
a fierce grin : 

“I’d like to meet that big dog again,” he an- 
swered. 

“And I’d enjoy dealing with them all in some 
of the ways that you and I handled our prisoners 
in the time when our names were a terror through- 
out the southern seas.” 

A heavy fog settled down as they talked, and Lee 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


175 


Sing ordered Wong to hitch on to the first dory 
tandem-wise. He carried a pocket compass, so 
they laid their course for the shore. The blanket 
of vapor settled down thicker, and when the rain 
drops came pelting through it, it made their prog- 
ress anything but pleasant. Those in the first 
boat could not see the second, and only the occa- 
sional jerk of the short warp by which they were 
attached gave evidence of their neighbors. The 
men bent doggedly to the oars, but as the hours 
passed, worn out by the exhausting labor that had 
preceded this demand upon their powers, they be- 
gan to succumb to the strain. Todd was the first 
to give up. Wong had noted his weakness, and 
saw it was useless to drive the man beyond his 
strength. The mate took his place, and the boats 
again forged ahead at their former pace. 

The fog was so thick that the first intimation of 
their nearness to the shore was when the foremost 
dory’s nose struck the sand. The cramped men 
would have thrown themselves upon the ground 
to rest, but their superiors forced them to pull the 
boats safely out of the water before they allowed 
them to relax their efforts. 

After a little the pirate led the way to a point 
back of the beach line, and set the men to collect- 
ing drift wood. Wong had a flint and steel, and 
box of tinder, and soon kindled a cheerful blaze. 
They heaped on wood until the flames shot up in 
the air, and warmed their chilled bones. As soon 


176 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


as Wong was dry and warm he began to long for 
something to eat, and with Lee Sing’s consent he 
started along the shore on a voyage of discovery. 
Half a mile above, he found several kayaks hauled 
beyond the water. This indicated a native settle- 
ment, and a short search revealed a number of 
native huts nearby. Smoke was coming out of 
some of them, and when he knocked at an entrance, 
a fat, black-haired Esquimau woman made her 
appearance. 

The looks of the Chinaman did not inspire con- 
fidence, for she gave a frightened yell when he at- 
tempted to step inside. Half a dozen men came 
running from the neighboring igloos. It is prob- 
able the Esquimau had never seen a Chinaman 
before, and Wong wore the costume of his coun- 
try. White men were not unknown to them, but 
this strangely attired man, with evil face, was a 
new experience. These natives are a kindly and 
gentle race, and although not prepossessed in favor 
of their visitor, they were not disposed to do him 
any harm on learning his errand was not hostile. 
By means of signs the newcomer managed to in- 
form them he was in need of food. This appeal 
struck home to the natives, for hospitality was their 
first and most binding law. In a moment they laid 
a huge fish before him, and when he made them 
understand that he had companions in misfortune, 
shipwrecked, further down the beach, a deputa- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 177 

tion laden with native provisions started back with 
him to the camp. 

They had frying pans, and cooking pots, and 
promptly prepared a hot meal for the strangers. 
The leader of the Esquimaux was questioned by 
Lee Sing, who learned St. Michaels was only forty 
or fifty miles distant, and that the Yukon River 
entered the Bering Sea about ten miles to the 
southward. The pirate chief inquired if any white 
settlement were nearer than St. Michaels and was 
answered in the negative. 

‘'Small parties of traders, however, were con- 
stantly passing in and out of the river.’^ In fact, 
the native said, “one of the men of their village had 
seen a small steam boat pass through the mouth of 
the delta that day !” 

The pirate chief called to Wong, and when the 
native saw how interested they were, he sent a mes- 
senger to the village to summon the fisherman who 
had viewed the steamer. This man described the 
vessel, and at the end of their conversation Wong 
and he were convinced that the stranger was none 
other than the Grade, and that she could not have 
reached the main stream since being seen by the 
Esquimau. 

This point settled, Lee Sing was curious to know 
if the natives possessed fire arms. He had al- 
ready conceived the project of following our gold 
miners in his dories, and after overpowering them 


1/8 Captain Pete in Alaska 

to take the steamer to Blondin’s creek. To be sure 
he had given the sketch to Captain Pete in Un- 
alaska, but he remembered every detail, and had no 
doubt of his ability to find the spot. If the vessel 
should not turn out to be the Grade, they would 
nevertheless capture, and use her for their own 
purposes, though Lee Sing and Wong preferred 
that the members of the ^Wellowbird Gold Mining 
Company’^ might prove the victims of the foray. It 
turned out the peaceable natives had no offensive 
weapons of any kind. The pirate was disap- 
pointed, but depended on the surprise of a sudden 
attack to accomplish his purpose. 

Ib-won, the native, offered to accompany them 
to the river, and show them how to cut across the 
delta in their small boats so as to enter the main 
stream above its confluence with the southern fork. 
This tallied with the plans of the pirate. The 
steamer would have to follow the deeper channel, 
and could not advance faster than two or three 
miles an hour, and Lee Sing believed they could 
overtake her in a short time. They started after 
they had finished their meal, and a short pull 
brought them to the place the Grade had entered 
ten hours before. Instead of following the indi- 
rect and tortuous stream taken by her, they laid 
a straight course to the westward. 

The pirate chief had a secret store of gold upon 
his person when the Dragon's Fang sank, and with 


179 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

the lavishness of a freebooter he gave the Esqui- 
mau a couple of pieces before they parted. Ib- 
won looked alternately at the gold, and at the boats 
speeding from the shore. His simple mind was 
not at ease. He had always been an ally and firm 
friend of the whites. They had treated him with 
justice and liberality, but this Chinaman and his 
company did not satisfy Ib-won's instincts. He 
had never before seen one of this race, and, al- 
though it is said by ethnologists that the Esqui- 
mau were of Mongolian extraction, he was not in- 
clined to like them. Somehow, his simple straight- 
forwardness did not seem to meet with equal frank- 
ness. Wong's personality was revolting, and the 
two coolies of the crew were not much better. Ib- 
won had seen too many white men not to recognize 
Scar-faced Jake and Todd as a low, and even 
criminal type. 

When the Esquimau recalled the cruel eager- 
ness which Lee Sing and his mate had displayed 
on hearing of the little steamer, and the intensity 
with which they had sought a description of it, he 
began to fear their intentions were not friendly. 
He looked again at the gold pieces the pirate chief 
had thrown him in careless prodigality, but simple 
as was his intellect he knew the possession of gold 
did not imply righteousness. Now his mind seized 
the possibility that these Chinese people were 
wrong-doers, and he began to seek a way to guard 


i8o Captain Pete in Alaska 

against any evil his information might have for- 
Avarded. It was certain if they intended mischief 
that it was his duty to prevent it. 

Ib-won turned, and made his way rapidly to the 
left bank of the river. He stopped, and made a 
small fire from driftwood. When it blazed up, 
he brought an armful of wet seaweed from the 
beach, and by skillful manipulation managed to 
send a series of rapid puffs of smoke straight aloft 
in the still air. He followed this volley-firing, so 
to speak, by making one long, dense column rise 
to the heavens. Then he pulled the sticks apart 
and extinguished them, knowing he had summoned 
any of his tribe that happened to be in sight to 
follow him. He set off, keeping some distance 
from the river bank, and trotted along rapidly, 
leaning forward with his body bent from the hips. 
The men in the boat — if they had been watching — 
could hardly have seen him, for at a distance the 
view of his rounded back in his rapid passage re- 
sembled that of a wild animal traversing the tundra. 

Captain Pete and his party merited a rest, and 
now they had a chance to repose in security they 
turned in with the determination to make up for 
lost time. All but Ah Fat and Dope went below 
to their bunks. Dope and the Chinaman were 
good comrades, although neither had an idea of 
the importance of keeping vigilant watch. 

The Grade lay in a nook formed by a sand bar 


Captain Pete in Alaska i8i 

projecting from the left bank, a half mile beyond 
where the two forks — as described in the last chap- 
ter — united, and formed the main stream of the 
Yukon. It was at least twenty miles from the sea 
shore. The parent stream which they had entered 
was a noble volume of water, eight miles wide, and 
apparently navigable for vessels of greater draft 
than the tug, from bank to bank. The channel 
ran along the opposite shore, and Pete had avoided 
it with intention. The bar curled like an interro- 
gation point at its outer end, and in this curlycue, 
about sixty yards from the wooded bank, the 
Grade was anchored. The bar at the bend of the 
curlycue was some thirty feet wide, and the swirl 
of the current had piled up the sand until it formed 
a rounded bank, twelve feet in height, cutting off — 
to one standing on the deck of the tug — the view 
of the stream in the direction of the delta. Ah 
Fat made a pillow of a coil of rope, and promptly 
lost all sense of his surroundings. At the end of 
five or six hours he awoke. Dope was standing 
near the stern in an attitude of watchfulness that 
at once attracted the coolie’s attention. The dog’s 
head was turned toward the forest fringing the 
neighboring bank. It consisted of a thick tangle 
of birch, alder, and spruce, and the trees grew so 
densely they would have effectually screened an 
army from observation. The Chinaman had no 
idea it concealed anything dangerous to the well- 


1 82 Captain Pete in Alaska 

being of the Grade's crew, and was inclined to be- 
lieve that some wild beast, such as a bear or a deer, 
was the disturber of Dope’s peace of mind. 

Suddenly the mastiff grew more alert, and he 
raised his head with a faint repressed whimper, as 
he had been taught to warn his friends of the ap- 
proach of anything suspicious. A moment later, 
something broke through the thicket, and the 
Chinaman caught a glimpse of a furry garment. 
Suddenly Dope whirled sharply around, and rushed 
to the side of the deck opposite the sand bank on 
the inner hook of the bar. He placed his fore- 
paws on the rail, and attempted to look over. This 
time his warning whimper was half snarl, as if he 
had caught an odor of which he disapproved. Ah 
Fat was still gazing at the object he saw dimly in 
the woods, but his ear caught the sound of an oar 
striking a metal row lock. It was evident that the 
boat from which the sound came was some distance 
away, and in any case it did not strike the coolie 
as a matter of great significance that a row boat 
should overtake them. 

He turned his gaze back to the forest, and saw 
an Esquimau, clothed in a fur parka, come out on 
the bank. This man paused when he had a full 
view of Ah Fat, who was clothed in the conven- 
tional Mongolian costume, hesitated a moment, 
and then came forward with a gesture unmistak- 
ably friendly. Something of urgency in the man- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 183 

ner of the new-comer apprised Ah Fat that his 
errand was of importance, and being a quick-witted 
fellow, he immediately connected it with the ap- 
proaching boat. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE PIRATES ATTACK THE GRACIE, AND ARE 
REPULSED 

H FAT concluded events were coming along 



too rapidly for him to handle on his own re- 
sponsibility. He ran to the companionway, and 
called down. Pete and Joe Floyd answered the 
summons instantly, and a moment after the rest 
followed. 

By this time, the Esquimau — Ib-won, of course 
— was on the sand spit. He called to Pete in 
broken English that he wanted to come aboard, and 
his voice and gestures indicated haste. Pete 
dropped in the skiff, and shoved it ashore. 

‘‘Quick! Quick!” exclaimed the native. “Bad 
man come! I think — bad!” 

The lad saw his visitor was greatly excited, and 
thought the quickest way to find out what he 
wanted was to follow directions. In a moment 
they were back on board. Ib-won’s first words 
were: 

“You got guns? Maybe need ^em!” 

At this moment Dope reared his head above the 
side of the vessel, and barked with a challenging 


184 



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Captain Pete in Alaska 185 

menace that indicated he knew what he was talk- 
ing about. 

‘‘Something’s wrong,” Pete exclaimed. 

Kennedy ran to the wheel-house, and unlocked the 
doors of an arm rack containing his own Stevens 
and two Winchester rifles of the latest pattern. 
The filled cartridge belts hung over the muzzles. 
He handed a Winchester to Floyd and Pete, and 
popped a cartridge into the barrel of his own with 
a smile of satisfaction. 

“We’re ready for trouble,” he remarked. 

By this time Pete had got enough of Ib-won’s 
story to understand that some men were following 
him in two boats, and the native feared they meant 
mischief. In his labored explanation, he pointed 
to Ah Fat, and said: 

“Four — ^yellow, like him. Two — white men!” 

Floyd pulled down his trigger guard abruptly, 
and shot a cartridge from the magazine to the bar- 
rel. Then, as he met the glances of the other two, 
he drawled : 

“I reckon them Dragon Tang fellers have got 
out of the calaboose !” 

Pete stepped into the boat, rifle in hand, and his 
friends followed him. At the foot of the little sand 
elevation, he said : 

“Keep back till I take a look !” 

He threw himself at full length on the sand, and 
peered over the top. The dories containing the 


i86 Captain Pete in Alaska 

pirate crew were there, and had drawn together 
for a consultation at a hundred yards’ distance. 
The spars of the Grade were plainly perceptible to 
them, and they had been approaching under the 
impression that the white barbarians were sleeping 
without watch. But the excited bay of the mas- 
tiff had reached their ears, and caused them to 
draw together in conference. 

Pete had hardly been able to credit the sugges- 
tion of the Esquimaux’ warning, although Joe 
Floyd’s exclamation had gone straight to the core 
of the matter. Now he divined what must have 
happened to bring the pirates to this spot, as well 
as their intentions. He whispered Kennedy and 
Floyd to peek over the brow of the bank, and while 
they were softly swearing at the sight that met 
their eyes, he thought quick and hard. 

In the first place, the pirates were foiled in their 
evident purpose to surprise them. He did not 
know that the Dragon* s Fang had foundered, and 
that Lee Sing and his crew were unarmed. If he 
had fully comprehended their utter desperation, he 
would not have been surprised at this recklessness, 
but after all, if they made the attack now it could 
only result in defeat. The lad desired to avoid 
bloodshed, although it was desirable to give their 
enemies a lesson that would make them wary of 
attempting mischief in future. He whispered to 
his companions : 

‘^Bring your rifles to bear on them, and if they 


Captain Pete in Alaska 187 

raise a weapon — shoot. I am going to have a talk 
with Lee Sing.’’ 

Kennedy and Floyd obediently thrust the muz- 
zles of their Winchesters over the bank, and cud- 
dled the butts to their cheeks. 

‘‘I got Lee Sing square over the heart breathed 
the ex-revenue officer, ''and it wouldn't take but 
mighty little to make me crook my finger." 

"Wong won't never trouble Dope no more if 
you say the word," drawled Joe. 

Captain Pete stepped forward, in full view of the 
pirates. There was a chorus of exclamations, and 
only Lee Sing was apparently unmoved. He 
gazed at our hero with a smile, and in an instant 
changed his plan of action. In spite of his alert- 
ness of mind, there were two things on which he 
was unable to calculate. He did not know the 
Grade had rescued Ah Fat, or that Ib-won had 
been shrewd enough to suspect him of evil intention 
against the steamer. The captain of the pirates 
supposed he was taking up his relations with Pete 
at the point where he had seemingly done the "Yel- 
lowbird Gold Mining Company" a favor by handing 
over the Blondin map. So he began : 

"I am glad to meet you. Captain Graignic. You 
were good enough to offer me help in Unalaska, 
and now I am in need of your aid. The ice 
knocked a hole in the bottom of the Dragon's Fang, 
and she has gone to the bottom. We barely es- 
caped in the dories. We have neither food nor 


1 88 Captain Pete in Alaska 

extra clothing. When we saw the masts of your 
vessel on the other side of the sand bar we came in 
all haste — though not knowing it was the Grade — 
to ask food and assistance.'^' 

Pete was sure this plausible story contained a 
portion of the truth. It explained their presence, 
which was more than he had been able to gather 
from the hurried tale of the Esquimau. Kennedy 
and Floyd were invisible to the pirate crew. The 
lad began to suspect that the Chinaman had no fire 
arms. If they had been armed Lee Sing would 
have talked differently, or attempted to hold him 
up at the muzzle of a gun. He had left his own 
rifle at the foot of the mound, and they could not 
divine that they were covered by men who seldom 
missed their aim. Though he wished to avoid 
actual conflict, he was not disposed to admit the 
rascals to terms of intimacy. It was safer to keep 
them at a distance, and how to do this without 
bringing on open war puzzled him. He saw that 
Lee Sing's speech was designed to avoid rupture, 
and read between its lines the pirates' purpose to 
attack them under the mask of friendliness. This 
must be forestalled at all events. He turned and 
called down to the tug. 

''Ah Fat, come here, and bring that Esquimau 
with you !" 

He stood in silence a moment, the pirate chief 
awaiting his answer. Then the coolie and Ib-won 
took their places at his side. At their appearance, 


Captain Pete in Alaska 189 

a shout of wonder went up from the dories. The 
apparition was distasteful as unexpected to Lee 
Sing. He realized that further deception was out 
of the question, and understood — for the first time 
— that in the boy captain of the Grade he had an 
opponent worthy of his steel. Pete lifted his hand, 
and his voice rang trenchantly over the intervening 
water : 

‘‘Lee Sing, the presence of these two men will 
tell you that I know your purpose. My friends do 
not want you on the Grade, If you come in our 
neighborhood, you do so at your peril.^’ 

In response to a signal of the pirate chief the 
men in both boats began to pull furiously toward 
the boy. He had anticipated some such denoue- 
ment, and said quietly to Kennedy and Floyd : 

“Don’t shoot at them! Crack one of the oar 
blades in each boat if you can.” 

A breath later two spurts of smoke were fol- 
lowed by the whiplike cracks of the rifles. The 
oar Scar-faced Jake was pulling quivered as a bul- 
let struck it. The impact discovered some imper- 
fection in the grain, the wood fibers parted, and a 
crevice opened to the thin end of the blade. Chow, 
the scowling Mongolian who pulled the forward 
oar in Wong’s boat, was even more unlucky. Joe 
Floyd, who could shoot out a squirrel’s eye at a 
hundred yards, drilled the small part of the loom 
of the oar — the round portion joining the fan- 
shaped blade. The old woodsman bored the hole 


1 90 Captain Pete in Alaska 

just where the oar could least withstand injury. 
Despite the jar to his hands, the stubborn pirate 
continued his stroke, but as his weight came on 
the maimed wood, it broke off at the point of per- 
foration, and left him gazing blankly at the shaft 
in his grasp, while the oar blade drifted away with 
the rapid current. 

Pete looked on quietly. The coolie and Esqui- 
mau had at first showed signs of panic when the 
pirates started on their dash. Now they smiled 
with naive and childlike delight at the discomfiture 
of the enemy. Floyd and Kennedy pushed their 
faces, illumined with broad grins, over the top of 
the bank to gloat at the effect of their volley. It 
caused confusion and uproar among the pirate 
crew. Lee Sing and Wong kept their heads, but 
the sailors promptly decided that this was an un- 
healthy locality, and, in spite of the expostulation 
of the officers, made off down the swift current. 

The shooting brought Long Tom and Jimmy to 
the scene, and all watched the retreat of the pirates 
with joy. Pete's countenance remained grave. 
The responsibility made him look deeper than the 
triumph of the moment, and he realized how un- 
fortunate it was that these men had escaped from 
the custody of Captain Senkil. There was no law 
on the Yukon to protect them from these maraud- 
ers, and the balance of their journey up the great 
river to Blondin's creek would be constantly men- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 19 1 

aced by this band of wolves hanging on their foot- 
steps. 

don’t like this commencement,” he said 
gloomily to Kennedy and Floyd. ''Perhaps it 
would have been wiser to have permitted them to 
make the attack. Then we could have shot Lee 
Sing, and Wong, and the rest would have been 
harmless.” 

" ’Tain’t too late yet,” drawled Floyd, levelling 
his Winchester. "Say the word!” 

Kennedy’s rifle sprang to his shoulder like light- 
ning, and he drew a bead on the pirate mate. For 
a second the young leader hesitated, then he drew 
a long breath, and snapped his jaw down: 

"No!” he said sharply. "It’s not right — except 
in self defense. We’re not outlaws — if they are!” 

"Bad yellow man no got gun,” supplemented Ib- 
won, overhearing this remark. "Tried buy at my 
village !” 

"If any are laying around loose they won’t be 
long getting ’em,” commented the revenue officer. 

"We won’t never git so good a chance at ’em 
again!” summed up the rancher sorrowfully. 

"I’m afraid you’re right,” Pete was forced to 
agree. 

While they were discussing the adventure, an 
eldritch screech from the woods hard by made the 
white men jump for their guns. Ib-won laughed, 
and answered with half a dozen yelps in a different 


192 Captain Pete in Alaska 

key. The others saw there was no cause for alarm, 
and awaited the result. In a moment three Esqui- 
maux broke through the underbrush, and seeing 
their countryman, came fearlessly down to the tug. 
Ib-won explained that when he had set out to warn 
the whites of the evil purposes of the yellow men 
he had summoned his band by smoke signal to fol- 
low his trail, in case of possible trouble. 

It occurred to Pete that Ib-won would be a de- 
sirable man to accompany them on their up-river 
trip, and Kennedy and Floyd approved of the idea. 
He found Ib-won more than willing to join them, 
for these natives have the itch for travel in their 
blood, and are nomads from birth. When Pete 
offered him a small monthly stipend, he accepted 
with delight, and said he knew the river, and could 
so guide the Grade as to overcome the obstacles to 
her ascent, and promised to keep a keen lookout 
that the ‘Fateful yellow men’’ did not surprise 
them. When he told his countrymen, it was ap- 
parent they envied him his good luck. Pete pre- 
sented him with some gewgaws, and a store of 
sugar and hard tack to give his friends. He dis- 
tributed them with royal good will, and sent the 
natives on their homeward journey in high spirits. 

Before they made a start, Ib-won explained in 
his broken English that he would like to scout back, 
and see whether the yellow men intended to go 
down to the mouth of the river. Pete thought it 
possible that after the lesson they had received, 


193 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

they might decide to return along the shore to St. 
Michaels. Having money, they could refit, and 
take up the trail in a better craft, and equipped with 
arms. 

The native disappeared in the thicket with the 
stealth of a beast of prey, and the Grade people 
awaited his return with curiosity. In an hour he 
came back and reported that two of the yellow men 
were fishing, and while the one they called Wong 
was shaping two oars from a spruce sapling with 
a small hatchet,^ the leader and Wong, he said, 
were talking earnestly as the latter worked. The 
two evil white men, as Ib-won characterised Scar- 
faced Jake and Todd, kept apart from the others. 
None of them showed any inclination to leave the 
camp for the present. 

1 Fishing tackle and a hatchet were part of the boat’s equipment, 
and were in them when the dories were launched from the deck 
of the sinking Dragon*s Fang. 


CHAPTER XVII 


WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SCAR-FACED MAN AND 
TODD — A NIGHT ATTACK 

I F Ib-won had been able to understand the conver- 
sation between Lee Sing and Wong, he would 
have had something of more interest to report : 

''Wong,’’ the pirate chief was saying, "we will 
take up our old trade. There is only one chance 
left us. We must cut the throats of those barbari- 
ans, and take their boat, and the deed must be done 
soon. Every moment makes it harder. They will 
be out of reach. We have no food, and, lastly, 
these two white dogs, Jake and Todd, will soon 
make us trouble. They are no longer under con- 
trol, and mean to take their own way. Look at 
them !” 

The two "evil white men” were sitting idly on 
the bank. They amused themselves as they talked 
by throwing stones at the fishermen. When Ah 
Tan and Chow remonstrated, they laughed inso- 
lently, and mimicked their shrill, expostulating 
voices. Wong viewed them with a somber glare 
in his black eyes as he replied : 

"Yes, Highness, I see. Now that the schooner 
is sunk, we need them no more.” 

194 


195 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

Lee Sing accepted this concise assurance without 
a change in the smile to which his features seemed 
naturally moulded. He knew his mate, and under- 
stood that the lives of the insubordinate sailors 
were not worth a pinch of tobacco. He passed 
over the matter as settled, and continued : 

‘We must get in advance of that steamer, and 
waylay her before another twenty-four hours have 
passed. And — he turned back to Scar-faced 
Jake and Todd — “You are right! We need them 
no more. Do as you will, but be ready to start in 
the boats with our own countrymen by the time the 
twilight sets in. It is short in these latitudes.’' 

Wong nodded in comprehension. Between 
these two old associates in crime few words were 
necessary. The sun only dipped beneath the hori- 
zon for an hour, and even then there remained 
enough light to temper the darkness. It was this 
interval the chief referred to. The gloom would 
enable them to pass ahead of the Grade unob- 
served. It was six o’clock in the evening, and they 
had until half past eleven or twelve. Presently, 
the pirate mate finished making the oar. He cast 
a glance at his chief, and strolled over to where the 
white sailors were still reclining. 

The river bank was some seven feet high, and 
as Wong came toward them, the scar-faced man 
dropped his sheath knife. It struck a smooth 
stone, rebounded, and fell over the brink on to the 
beach. Jake exploded in an angry oath, and leaped 


196 Captain Pete in Alaska 

down to recover it. At this moment the pirate 
reached the spot, and looked on him from above. 
Todd was ten feet distant. These two men had 
been concerting plans of their own while the leader 
of the pirates and Wong were conspiring, and Jake 
being a reckless ruffian, in the vexation of the mo- 
ment, took the opportunity to notify Wong of their 
intentions : 

“You sawed-off chink!'’ he said, as he unexpect- 
edly gazed up into the eyes of the man who had 
disciplined him sharply during the voyage from 
Victoria, “Todd an' me is goin' to quit this outfit 
to-day, an' we're goin' to take one of them dories 
when we go." 

Wong had approached the spot predisposed to 
murder, and this sudden defiance was a lash that 
incited him to instant action. A heavy boulder lay 
at his feet. He lifted it as if it had been a feather, 
and cast it down upon the other. It hit the scar- 
faced one, who was looking upwards and had his 
head thrown back, squarely on the breast, and the 
unfortunate man crumpled beneath its weight like 
a pillow struck with a club. It happened so swiftly, 
and the accomplishment of the pirate's purpose was 
so complete, that the victim did not even have time 
to groan before he was dead, his life beaten out in 
that second of time. 

Wong turned toward the second sailor with the 
alertness of a wild beast, but Todd had seen the 
blow and its terrible effect. He was not a timid 


197 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

miscreant, but the sudden wiping out of his partner 
was too much for his nerves. He let out a yell 
that rang far over the water, leaped for the beach, 
and ran swiftly to where one of the dories lay half 
afloat. With strength quadrupled by his terror he 
put his shoulder to the stern and pushed it into 
deep water. As it glided away from the shore he 
cast himself in, and rowed with all his might down 
stream. Wong threw a cobblestone as large as a 
brick after him with such accuracy that it struck 
Todd’s knee, and shattered the bone as if it had 
been a pipe stem. He uttered a shriek of agony, 
but stubbornly clung to the oars, and redoubled his 
efforts to escape. 

By this time Lee Sing had come to the bank. He 
merely glanced at the maimed form of Scar-faced 
Jake beneath the heavy stone, and fixed his eyes 
keenly on the man in the boat. His sharp gaze 
discerned that the frenzied efforts were weakening 
second by second as the strength oozed out of 
Todd’s tortured body. Then he smiled slightly, 
and said quietly to his mate : 

‘Tt is well done. Old Wong. You have got both 
birds. Take the other dory, and follow. The bar- 
barian will drop from his seat soon. Throw him 
in the water, and bring the boat back.” 

The event fell out as Lee Sing predicted. By the 
tipie the second boat overtook him, not many min- 
utes later, Todd’s oar had dropped from his nerve- 
less hands, and he had fallen off the thwart in a 


198 Captain Pete in Alaska 

swoon. Wong seized him by the collar, and with 
scarcely an effort of his strong arm lifted the sense- 
less body over the side and let it sink in the icy 
water. He gave a grunt of satisfaction, and 
secured the painter to the stern of his own dory. 
Then he pulled to the shore without so much as 
a glance to see if the body of his victim had dis- 
appeared. The two Chinese sailors met him as he 
brought the boats to within a few feet of where 
Jake lay, and assisted him to drag them out of the 
water. Then they all went back to the camp fire, 
and cooked the fish they had caught, and ate their 
dinner without any perceptible diminution of ap- 
petite on account of the incidents I have related. 

When the Grade hauled out of her berth a mod- 
erate breeze was blowing. They found the Yukon 
to be a wide stream at this point. The right bank 
was low and the country back of it level, and cov- 
ered with spruce, and birch and alder. The cur- 
rent ran swiftly, and in combination with the head 
wind made the progress of the steamer slow and 
toilsome beside using up fuel at an alarming rate. 

The breeze steadily increased, and before ten 
miles were passed it became a hurricane, raising 
waves five or six feet high and whipping their 
crests into foam. The storm caught the Grade on 
the right or unsheltered bank. There seemed to be 
no place along the shore where they could get out 
of the force of the gale or the accelerated current of 
the river. At last Pete was forced to cross the 


199 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

raging stream to seek more favorable conditions on 
the opposite side. When he exposed the full length 
of the little vessel to the fury of the wind it seemed 
to lift her fairly out of the water, and carried her 
down stream at a rate that startled him. Never- 
theless she was a staunch craft, and built to con- 
tend with heavy weather. He headed up the river, 
and kept her quartering for the wooded banks on 
the opposite side. 

They were swept down several miles before they 
succeeded in crossing. The young captain discov- 
ered a rocky headland projecting a hundred yards 
into the water, and tried to fight his way into its 
lee, but found a long sand spit projected from the 
end of the point down the river. He headed up 
inside of this — where he saw still water. He was 
entering the haven when an unexpected gust caught 
the Grade, and whirled her out of her course. Her 
engines were racing at full speed, and she buried 
her nose in the bar with a shock that almost tore 
her timbers apart. The stern lay in deep water, 
and was partially protected from the strength of the 
blast. 

When the power was shut off the stubby bow- 
sprit projected ten feet over the sand, and Pete 
and Kennedy leaped down. The bow of the tug 
had burrowed deep into the yellow sand, and seemed 
immovably fixed. An examination of the engine 
and hull assured them that nothing had been broken 
or jarred out of place by the shock, but the gale 


200 Captain Pete in Alaska 

was blowing harder than ever. It tore through 
the forest above them felling trees and hurling 
branches through the air with a clatter that made 
them thank their stars they had gained even the 
incomplete shelter of the bar. The Grade was 
head on to the wind, and they agreed that nothing 
could be done until it abated. 

Pete put out the kedge as a measure of precau- 
tion, and they retired to the cabin, and listened to 
the blast howling above them. It continued for 
some hours, and gradually diminished in force. 
As they were about to congratulate themselves that 
the storm was over, it suddenly began again and 
blew harder than ever. All that day and a part of 
the next they huddled around the stove in the cabin 
for it had become piercingly cold. Thirty-six 
hours after they struck the sandbar it dropped to 
a dead calm, and the sun forced its way through 
the clouds, and cheered the hearts of the ship- 
wrecked company. 

Pete lowered the small boat, and paddled around 
the Grade. Floyd went with him, and they found 
she had run up on a shelf of loose, yellow sand. 
Two-thirds of her length was clear, and floated in 
water ten or fifteen feet in depth. They were lying 
on the inner edge of a crescent formed by the head- 
land projecting from the shore, and the sand bar 
leading down the river from its end. This formed 
a small harbor a hundred yards in depth. Pete 
had brought a lead and as Floyd pulled him about 


201 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

he made sure there was plenty of water in which to 
turn the tug around when she was extricated from 
her uncongenial berth in the sand. 

Under the young leader’s directions they dug a 
deep trench on each side of the bow until they un- 
covered the tug’s stem. Further aft the water be- 
gan to pour in, and it became a case for rubber 
boots. When they could no longer dig to advantage 
their efforts had resulted in so far aiding the 
Grade that she almost floated at the head. How- 
ever, as Kennedy pointed out ''almost” was as bad 
as nothing if they could not haul her into deep 
water. Long Tom smiled and permitted himself to 
say in his prim, man-of-war style : 

"I think, sir, Captain Pete knows he can kedge 
her off.” 

Pete smiled, and acknowledged that such was his 
intention. The kedge anchor, weighing about two 
hundred pounds, was ferried out a hundred feet or 
more from the stern. Here they dumped it, and 
carried the line back on board. Then all hands 
tailed on the rope. Long Tom had hold in front, 
and started one of the sailor chanteys used on board 
ship to mark time for the men when pulling on a 
heavy drag : 

“ Oh, Boney was a warrior ! 

Oh, ho! Oh, ho!” 

They all surged madly with their weight on the 
cable when they came to the "Oh, ho ! Oh, ho !” and 


202 Captain Pete in Alaska 

they felt the Grade quiver. Then a grating 
craunch ran along her keel, and she slipped a foot 
or two backward into deep water : 

“A warrior, a tarrier! 

John, prance along!!!” 

When he came to prance along, the 

chantey man bent his back with every ounce of 
power in him, and the others followed suit. The 
warp extending to the kedge hummed like a harp 
string. Then the Grade started as if life blood had 
been injected in her veins, and slipped over the sand 
into the deep water at the edge of the bar. 

By the time they had floated their craft the sun 
was dipping, and murky clouds banked in the sky 
until it was almost black. Pete said to Kennedy 
and Floyd: 

‘'What's the program ? Shall we get the anchor 
up and continue our trip, or stop here until we have 
more light ?" 

“What's the hurry?" asked Kennedy. 

“I wonder where them pirates are?" drawled the 
rancher. 

“That's what bothers me," said Pete. “We are 
too close to Lee Sing and Wong for either safety 
or pleasure. This continual anticipation of an at- 
tack keeps me in the anxious seat." 

“Well," interrupted Kennedy. “If that wind 
caught those Chinks on the river, the chances are 
we've heard the last of them, and even if they got 


203 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

safe to shore they couldn't have traveled far enough 
to put us in any danger of an attack. If you think 
it is best to lay here until the sun comes out again, I 
don't see any reason why we shouldn't do so." 

They agreed and went below to their bunks, for 
they had not got much sleep during the gale. Dope 
and Ib-won remained on deck to watch. 

The clouds became thicker and deeper. Outside 
the bar the current rippled, making crisp splashes 
that were the only sounds disturbing the stillness of 
night. The Grade swung by a warp about fifty 
feet long. She drifted to its full length so that her 
stern was not many feet from the edge of the 
shingle. 

Dope knew Ib-won was an employee of the ‘‘Yel- 
lowbird Gold Mining Company," but persisted in 
considering him a harmless variety of wild animal 
not to be considered in the same class with his mas- 
ter and the other white men. Therefore he sta- 
tioned himself on the bow which was nearest the 
sand bar while Ib-won, who — to tell the truth— was 
more at ease when the mastiff was at a distance, 
took up his place at the stern which swung in the 
center of the little harbor. 

An hour passed, and the clouds gathered more 
thickly in the zenith. A breath of heavy vapor 
rolled in from the river, and was followed by fold 
after fold of greasy mist until the Arctic night was 
black as the bottomless pit. The fog deadened the 
faint splash of water, and dulled Ib-won's and even 


204 Captain Pete in Alaska 

the mastiff's faithful ears so they did not discern 
the ripple caused by a dark mass which separated 
from the bank, and was gently propelled toward the 
Graders stern. It came closer, and resolved itself 
into a dory paddled by four men with cautious 
stealth. The Esquimau leaned over the taffrail 
with his eyes closed. He did not dream of danger 
from the evil yellow men, and if he had, the gloom 
was so intense he could not have distinguished 
their approach. 

Now the dory was beneath the stern, and a long 
arm reached out and seized the rope by which the 
tug was moored. Wong — for it was he — grasped 
it more firmly, and took hold with his other hand 
preparatory to clambering on the deck. The rope 
quivered slightly, and creaked where it was made 
fast to a belaying pin in the rail. The Esquimau 
did not awaken to his danger, but Dope heard the 
creak, and felt the vibration produced by the weight 
on the warp. He had been taught by his master to 
investigate before giving alarm. Instead, there- 
fore, of barking — as most dogs would have done — 
he padded noiselessly aft to find the reason for the 
slight disturbance his acute senses had noted. If 
the air had been dry the noble animal would have 
already scented the Chinaman. As it was he did 
not suspect that his master's enemies were so near. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


WHAT DOPE DID TO THE PIRATES — WONG GOES ADRIFT 

T he great mastiff slunk along like a shadow un- 
til he came to the taffrail where Ib-won was 
leaning. His approach was so noiseless that neither 
the Esquimau on the inside or the pirate mate — • 
now coming up the anchor warp hand over hand — 
detected his presence. Dope stood for a moment in 
an attitude of frozen watchfulness like a bird dog 
on a point. 

Wong’s body was entirely out of the dory, and 
he hung suspended at the stern of the Grade, With 
the strength of a gymnast, and the stealth of a tiger 
he warily made his way upward. A short heavy 
club attached by a thong to his waist-belt was his 
only weapon. 

Nearer and nearer with each shift of his hand- 
grip he moved toward the somnolent Esquimau, 
although not as yet aware of his presence. Dope 
had decided that danger was imminent to those 
whom it was his duty to protect. Still silent as 
death the mastiff cautiously put his fore paws on 
the rail, and standing on his hind feet the black 
mask of his face peered into the gloom below. His 
205 


2o6 Captain Pete in Alaska 

head was merely a darker blot of the night, undis- 
cernible by Wong or the others in the boat. 

The pirate was now level with the taffrail. Ex- 
tending his right arm he reached over the stern 
and — brought it down on Ib-won^s shoulder. He 
had sought to grasp the inner rail, and hoist him- 
self quietly aboard the vessel. He realized in a 
flash that instead he was clutching the shoulder of 
a sleepy watchman. The sudden realization that 
this incidei>t must cause the failure of his plan to 
surprise the Graders company filled his fierce heart 
with a sudden blaze of anger that for the moment 
robbed him of his judgment, and made him careless 
of consequence. 

With^an inarticulate yell of rage like the snarl of 
a wild beast, he pulled Ib-won to him, and at the 
same moment wriggled over the taffrail to the deck. 
Dope by this time had gained a clear idea of the 
scope of the attack. Simultaneously with the 
pirate’s cry he leaped upon him. Wong’s hands 
encircled the Esquimau throat, and he was bear- 
ing him backward to the deck. Another second 
would have sealed Ib-won’s fate, but the mastiff 
sprang upon the pirate and fastened his teeth in his 
brawny back. The powerful dog gave him a des- 
perate shake that tore him loose from the native, 
and made him for an instant feel like a rat in the 
jaws of a furious terrier. 

Dope had his plan marked out. He did not linger 
with the Chinaman. Giving him a final shake he 


207 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

cast him aside, and leaped from the top of the rail 
into the dory. As he disappeared there was a 
commotion on board, and Pete burst from the 
scuttle followed by Floyd and Kennedy. Floyd 
picked up a lantern as he sprang from his berth, and 
in a second struck a match and the flame flared up. 
This made him arrive on the scene a moment later 
than the others. With the unreasoning directness 
of a bull dog Kennedy had found his way to Wong. 
Snatching a belaying pin from the rail he struck the 
pirate, who was attempting to regain his feet, a 
blow which sent him back to the deck senseless. 
Pete was bending over Ib-won who had just begun 
to realize where he was. 

In the hurly burly only Pete missed Dope. A 
tremendous tumult in the water behind the Grade 
caused them to congregate at the stern. A second 
after felling the pirate mate Kennedy, with the read- 
iness of a frontiersman, had sprung to the arm rack 
inside the wheel house, and lined up alongside of the 
others with his loaded Steven’s in his hand. 

It proved to be unnecessary as a means of de- 
fense. Old Dope was master of the situation. 
When the dog sprang into the boat he landed on the 
sailor Ah Tan and his huge jaws closed upon the 
unfortunate pirate’s wrist. The bone cracked as if 
it had been a chicken’s wing. With a sharp cry of 
pain and terror he tried to pull away and Dope, with 
the intelligence of his training, released him and 
leaped full at Chow’s throat. This man sat on the 


2o8 Captain Pete in Alaska 

thwart behind, and further back Lee Sing was in 
the chocks of the bow. The dog flashed one light- 
ning snap at the sailor which laid his throat open, 
and continued toward the pirate leader. Lee Sing 
had a light paddle uplifted in his right hand. But 
though fearless, he was not the man to engage in an 
unequal struggle. Instead of awaiting the ap- 
proach of the mastiff he flung his weapon into his 
black face. As it happened the point of the paddle 
struck Dope squarely on the nose, and for a second 
stopped his onset. Lee Sing took advantage of the 
opportunity, and dove overboard. Ah Tan had 
taken to the water in terror, and Chow toppled over 
the side of the boat after the mastiff gashed him. 

Therefore when Pete, and Floyd, and Kennedy 
peered over the taffrail into the gloom below they 
discovered Dope to be the sole inmate of the dory. 
Lee Sing, abandoning the others to their fate, was 
swimming rapidly and silently to the shore. Ah 
Tan made as much progress as he could with his 
one uninjured arm, in his wake. Chow was mor- 
tally wounded, and after a faint struggle sunk to 
the bottom. 

Of course Pete and his friends were unable to see 
these facts as I have told them, and only understood 
that an attack on the Grade had been successfully 
repelled through the efforts of the mastiff. They 
recognized Wong, whom they bound before he re- 
gained consciousness, and had seen the sailor Chow 
sink helplessly out of sight. A rippling efflores- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 209 

cence in the water showed where Lee Sing was 
nearing the shore, but they were not aware that it 
was the defeated pirate chief. Nearer them Ah 
Tan floundered and splashed in his painful efforts 
to escape. 

Kennedy raised his rifle, and pointed the muzzle 
at the latter, but Pete threw up the barrel and said : 

‘The man is disabled, let him go.’’ 

“He’ll only die in the bush,” remarked Floyd. 
“An Alaskan forest is no place for a disabled man.” 

“He’ll suffer more than if I put a bullet through 
his head,” remarked the ex-revenue man with some 
satisfaction, dropping the butt of the gun on the 
deck. 

The next thing on the program was to bring Dope 
back. Pete and Floyd went after him in the small 
boat. As they came to the dory, Dope stood on the 
thwart. He alternately looked at his friends, and 
wagged his tail furiously, and gazed into the dark- 
ness where Lee Sing was wading to the shore, and 
growled. He was evidently undetermined whether 
it was not his duty to pursue the enemy. When 
Pete called he gave a parting bark toward the shore, 
and leaped into the dingy. The young leader was 
not ashamed to throw his arms around the neck of 
the noble animal in a warm embrace. Floyd looked 
down sympathetically, and commented: 

“He sure is a wonder ! He has done up the whole 
lot of Chinks, and I can’t see that he’s got a scratch.” 

This was not entirely true, for Dope’s nose where 


210 Captain Pete in Alaska 

it had been hit by the point of the pirate's paddle, 
was bruised and swollen. Although he had not 
heeded it in the ardor of the combat it was now ap- 
parent that it pained him greatly. Floyd insisted 
on bathing and bandaging it with tincture of arnica. 
This friendly attention Dope gratefully accepted 
although the majestic mastiff looked absurdly ridic- 
ulous with the square point of his black muzzle 
wrapped in white linen. 

They had brought the dory with them to the 
Grade, and tied it under the stern. When the sun 
rose an hour later the fog rolled away, and the morn- 
ing dawned with dazzling brilliancy. There was 
not a breath of wind and the radiant orb of day 
burned in the blue heaven with unwonted splendor. 
As it rose higher over the tops of the trees which 
crowned the bank its smiles were concentrated on 
the bosom of the little pool in which the vessel lay 
anchored. Outside in the swift currents of the 
main stream the turbulent waters were opaque with 
yellow mud. In the estuary behind the sand bar 
no current disturbed the still depths. When the 
sun struck it from above it became translucent, and 
the little Scotchman exclaimed, pointing with his 
finger : 

‘‘Mon ! Look there. Dope has got ane of 
them r 

On the yellow sand beneath ten feet of water lay 
the body of Chow the dead pirate. He was on his 
back, and his arms were extended as in the last 


2II 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

futile struggle. Their anger had departed with the 
coming of day, and all felt the sadness of the spec- 
tacle. 

''After all,’^ moralized Pete, "human life is a 
sacred thing, and I am glad that the blood guilt is 
on old Dope’s soul instead of mine.” 

"Shake hands. Dope!” exclaimed Kennedy, ex- 
tending his sturdy fist to the mastiff. 

Dope, who sat on his hinder end nearby, solemnly 
stretched out a huge paw. Kennedy shook it 
warmly and continued: 

"That’s all right about the sacredness of human 
life! But I am glad that fellow instead of Dope 
is sprawling at the bottom of the river. Talking 
about souls! Dope’s got one all right — which is 
more than I think the dead man ever had.” 

Floyd summed up the subject before they turned 
away: 

"Some dogs has souls,” said he with his hand on 
Dope’s head. "And some humans hasn’t.” 

"Well,” said Pete, "we may as well start for 
Blondin’s creek. But what are we going to do with 
the pirate we have captured ?” 

Wong sat near them on the deck with his hands 
ironed behind him, and tied down to a ringbolt. 
He was a sturdy villain, and not much the worse 
for the encounter of the previous night. Dope had 
chopped a piece of meat as large as a lemon out of 
his right buttock when he paid his compliments to 
^he marauder before leaping into the boat. Ken- 


212 Captain Pete in Alaska 

nedy had laid his scalp open with the belaying pin, 
but his thick skull was intact. He had not even 
lost his appetite, for when they gave him his break- 
fast he fed voraciously. With astonishing oriental 
impassiveness he seemed to have accepted his fate, 
and although he displayed no lack of interest in 
what was passing it was evident he was prepared to 
accept whatever penalty his captors might impose. 

This in truth was a problem that gave them some 
trouble to solve : 

‘'Let’s take him ashore and tie him to a tree,” 
suggested Kennedy. 

Joe Floyd shook his head, and Pete said : 

“No. That would hardly do. Cap. Lee Sing 
seems to have escaped with his whole skin, and he 
is probably watching us now from these woods.” 

“If he had a gun he’d be shooting !” agreed Ken- 
nedy. 

“Well,” continued Pete, “ten minutes after we 
got out in the river Lee Sing would have his mate 
free, and the two would hatch more mischief.” 

“Sure as you’re born,” assented the rancher. 

“Then, I tell you!” cried Kennedy, who seemed 
full of ideas in this connection. “We’ll bind him 
hand and foot, and put him in the dory and cast him 
adrift in the middle of the river. If he’s got any 
luck, maybe he’ll fetch up in the Bering Sea — ” 

“We don’t need the dory, anyhow,” Floyd said. 

“He’d have a chance of being picked up by the 


213 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

natives/’ remarked Pete, thoughtfully. ‘'On the 
whole I believe it’s the best thing we can do. We 
can’t put him ashore on account of Lee Sing, and 
we don’t want him with us.” 

“Not much !” agreed the others. 

The wind had fallen until not a breath of air was 
stirring. Now they got their first experience of a 
plague with which they were destined to become on 
intimate terms during the balance of their expedi- 
tion. They had already noticed the presence of 
mosquitoes, and the annoying and persistent insects 
began to appear in myriads as the sun warmed up 
the air. They saw countless swarms of them buz- 
zing along the edge of the timber, and presently 
some uncanny instinct made them aware of the pres- 
ence of their natural prey on board the Grade. 
They charged on the vessel in such numbers as to 
fairly put the crew to rout. They ran to the cabin 
and slammed the door after them, forgetting in their 
haste that Dope and Wong were left to the tender 
mercy of the vicious little winged assailants. 

The young Captain went to his chest, and throw- 
ing aside the things that lay on top, brought out 
half a dozen face shields that he had bought in Vic- 
toria for this emergency. They were little globes 
of fine netting made to frame the head of the wearer, 
and fitting closely around the neck so that the pests 
could not crawl under. As they proceeded to equip 
themselves with this strange head-gear, they heard 


214 Captain Pete in Alaska 

yells of dismay from Wong, and Dope pushed 
against the cabin door whimpering loudly for his 
master to come to his relief. 

Hastily drawing on gloves they returned to the 
deck. Dope made a dash past them into the cabin 
when they opened the door, and they shut him in to 
recover his equanimity. The pirate was covered so 
thickly with the tormenting insects that it looked 
as if the exposed portion of his skin was clothed 
with a coarse fur. He had closed his eyelids to 
protect his vision, but the sockets were banked full 
of the little plagues, each struggling for a chance 
to thrust its proboscis into his skin in search of 
blood. They buzzed so furiously about his face that 
when he had opened his mouth to yell shortly be- 
fore, hundreds had flown in and almost choked the 
unfortunate man. 

Floyd, in his knowledge of woodcraft, was the 
first to afford adequate relief from the tormentors. 
In a jiffy he had gathered the materials for a 
smudge in a large iron kettle. He lit this, and as 
the heavy fog of smoke poured out he sprinkled a 
handful of powdered sulphur he had brought from 
below on the smoldering embers. The effect was 
instantaneous. As the reeking blast reached them 
the insects fell on the deck by millions. Those who 
did not get the immediate effect of the deadly vapor 
smelled it from afar, and judiciously kept on the 
outskirts of the impregnated zone. Joe set the pot 
between the Chinaman’s legs, and the acrid fumes 


Captain Pete in Alaska 215 

relieved him from the mosquito nuisance as if by 
magic. The odor of the tar, and old rope, and sul- 
phur which composed the smudge however, soon 
made the burly pirate almost long again for the in- 
sects. In the few seconds Floyd thought it safe to 
leave the smudge under his nose his muddy, sallow 
complexion turned to a cadaverous white, and he 
became violently sick at his stomach. 

Fortunately they had started their fires before the 
mosquitoes made their appearance in force, and 
when they came out on the open river the insects 
disappeared. They discovered later the pests rarely 
left the shore, and that they were safe from their 
attacks on the bosom of the water. 

When they reached the middle of the broad flood 
about four miles from either bank, Pete hauled the 
dory alongside. He cut the ropes that secured 
Wong’s ankles, and led him to the rail: 

‘We don’t want to kill you, Wong,” he said to 
the pirate. “And yet we don’t think it safe to let 
you go entirely free. We’ll set you adrift in the 
dory. It will probably carry you a good distance 
down the river.” 

“Wait a moment,” interrupted Floyd. “I came 
near forgetting something!” 

He bolted down into the cabin and reappeared 
with the tin can containing the two halves of the 
poison ball that had been thrown on board the 
Grade in Sitka. He tied it around the pirate’s bull 
neck and said: 


2i6 Captain Pete in Alaska 

“Thar! Ef you git hungry — you can tackle 
that/’ 

The pirate’s face betrayed no emotion as he 
stepped into the boat. In his stolid way he accepted 
his predicament as foreordained and inevitable. 
It never occurred to him to whimper or beg for 
mercy. These foolish barbarians were even giving 
him a chance for his life. He knew if he had held 
Captain Pete in the hollow of his hand — instead of 
the case being reversed — that he would have shown 
no such silly soft-heartedness as to permit an enemy 
to escape alive. Pete met his eyes as the ruthless 
old marauder turned his gaze upward in a parting 
glance, and waved his hand in involuntary farewell. 
Wong spat contemptuously in the water and turned 
his back on the lad who had conquered him, and 
failed to exact the uttermost penalty. 


CHAPTER XIX 


TWO OF pete's friends DIE, AND ONE MAKES HIM 
HIS HEIR 

W HILE Captain Pete was urging the Grade 
toward the upper Yukon, things were hap- 
pening on Puget Sound that were of momentous 
interest to the young man, and it is necessary to go 
back several weeks, and relate what has occurred 
in Port Townsend, and Cortesana. 

Captain Pete bade adieu to Grace Hogan in Port 
Townsend on the twenty-eighth of May. Every- 
thing was prosperous with the Collector and his 
family, or Pete would not have dreamed of going 
on an expedition which would cut him off from 
communication with them for a long period. There 
are times in every life and career when important 
events tumble headlong over one another, and it 
appeared that such an interval was happening in 
Captain Pete's existence. The young man's career 
had been singularly fortunate in many ways. Al- 
though the struggle to rise above the level of his 
birth was a hard one his life had never been marked 
by real calamity. Now that he was far beyond 
reach of those he loved the events we have fore- 
casted began to occur. 

217 


2i 8 Captain Pete in Alaska 

While the Grade was in the ice pack of the Ber- 
ing Sea, about a month after Pete’s departure, Col- 
lector Hogan was taken down with a heavy cold, 
and the disease developed into acute pneumonia. 
The old man’s constitution had been a sturdy one, 
but the hardships endured during three years’ serv- 
ice in the War of the Rebellion, and a later gener- 
ous conviviality had undermined it. Despite so- 
licitous care he only lingered a week, and Grace was 
left fatherless. 

Fortunately Major and Mrs. Fisher had returned 
from the East, and were in Port Townsend. With 
the exception of Captain Pete, the Fishers were per- 
haps the closest friends of the Hogans. Mrs. 
Fisher was constantly with the bereaved family, 
and helped them to bear up under the affliction. 
At Mrs. Hogan’s request Major Fisher took hold 
of her business affairs, which had been left in a 
somewhat ragged state, and did his best to adjust 
them to advantage. He found the Collector had 
not left as large an estate as had been anticipated. 
Several years before he had speculated largely, and 
somewhat injudiciously in Puget Sound real estate. 
A period of business depression had caused many 
of these investments to go awry. Had it not been 
for the money paid him by the Government for the 
foiling of Joe Cloon’s great Opium conspiracy (as 
related in Captain Pete of Cortesana) he certainly 
would not have been able to extricate himself from 


Captain Pete in Alaska 219 

his troubles, and the family would have been left 
penniless. 

Major Fisher was able to save from the wreck a 
sufficient income to the Hogans to maintain them in 
a modest way. He advised the sale of the costly 
residence the Collector had erected before his mis- 
fortunes overtook him, and that the family take up 
their lives on a scale more fitting to their present 
means. 

It was .natural during this period that Grace’s 
thoughts should turn to her young lover. She 
knew that if he were aware of the present straits of 
the family, he would be at her side, and prove a 
strong and efficient aid. It occurred to her to send 
him a message, and she consulted Major Fisher on 
the subject. He agreed that it was desirable Pete 
should know of the death of his old patron as soon as 
possible, and of the alteration in the circumstances 
of the Hogan family. 

Pete had written Grace on his departure from 
Sitka. Owing to the infrequency of the mails, the 
letter had not reached her until two or three days 
after her father’s death. He told her he might be 
detained in Unalaska on account of the ice in the 
Bering Sea. Major Fisher wired Victoria and 
Seattle, and availed himself of all the maritime re- 
sources at his command, but was unable to find a 
boat on the eve of departure to the extreme North. 
It was too early in the season for the ordinary traffic 


220 Captain Pete in Alaska 

with the Bering Sea to begin, and the disappointing 
result of his efforts was to discover that an early 
ship would start from Seattle on the 29th of June 
bound for Unalaska, and Alaskan ports on the Ber- 
ing Sea. They wrote by this vessel on the possibil- 
ity of the Grade still being detained at the Aleutian 
Islands. 

Important as was the bearing of Collector Ho- 
gan’s death on Captain Pete’s affairs an event im- 
mediately followed that seemed to equal it in im- 
portance. Mr. Hagan, the old real estate dealer 
and manager of the Origgon Improvement Com- 
pany’s interests at Cortesana, who had been the 
main instrument in building up Pete’s financial 
standing, was hurried out of the world even more 
suddenly than Collector Hogan. Mr. Hagan had 
gone to show an intending purchaser an important 
tract of land on Deception Pass. He and the cap- 
italist were caught in a tide ripple in a dangerous 
portion of the Pass, as the current came rushing in 
from the Pacific Ocean. This body of Puget 
Sound, Deception Pass, is well known to mariners 
as being at certain stages of the tide as dangerous 
as the waters in the bay of Fundy. It was through 
the accident of an oar being broken in the inexperi- 
enced hands of the purchaser that the old real estate 
dealer was overtaken by the disaster. If he had 
been alone in the boat, he would probably have suc- 
ceeded in reaching the shore. As it was, their skiff 
was overturned in the maelstrom, and the two men 


221 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

drowned within sight of helpless spectators on the 
beach. The bodies were recovered the same day, 
and brought to Cortesana. 

Mr. Hagan had laid out the town site, and been 
one of the principal factors in building the little city 
to its present status of important prosperity. He 
was a large property holder, and had money in- 
vested in most of its commercial enterprises. The 
old man had formed few friendships in the city of 
his adoption. He had given himself entirely to the 
business side of life, and had never been concerned 
with the social amenities of the town. Therefore 
his existence had been a solitary one. 

Nothing was known of Mr. Hagan’s family. He 
had lived alone, and those in business connection 
with him had never heard him mention his personal 
affairs. Captain Pete had been the only one who 
seemed to entirely possess the old gentleman’s affec- 
tion and confidence. He was supposed to be a 
wealthy man, and the disposition of his estate was a 
matter of much interest to the inhabitants of Cor- 
tesana. Speculation was freely indulged in as to 
his will, although no one knew positively that he 
had left testamentary papers. 

A few days after the funeral it became known that 
Judge Sharpstein held the last will and testament 
of George C. Hagan, and that he had devised all 
his possessions to Peter Graignic, of Cortesana. 
The estate was valued at nearly half a million of 
dollars, and was invested in city property of rapidly 


222 Captain Pete in Alaska 

increasing value, and prosperous commercial enter- 
prises. As Captain Pete — the Peter Graignic of 
the testament — was known to be absent on a voy- 
age to Northern Alaska the will could not be pro- 
bated. Judge Sharpstein thought it expedient to 
notify the friends of the heir to this princely fortune 
in order that they might communicate the windfall 
to him as soon as possible. In fact he felt the pres- 
ence of the new owner of the property was urgently 
desirable on account of the necessity for financial 
supervision of the details of the estate. 

So it came about that the old fisherman of Wal- 
dron Island and his Indian wife, Captain Pete’s 
father and mother, received a letter from the Cor- 
tesana lawyer telling them their oldest son was now 
one of the wealthy men of the new Northwest. The 
stirring tidings did not throw the old fisherman off 
his balance, but he recognized that a man should 
not be wandering through the northern wilds in con- 
stant peril, when his own and other important in- 
terests, depended on his presence in Cortesana. 

The result of the fisherman’s cogitations brought 
him into Judge Sharpstein’s office on 'T” Street, a 
couple of days later, and there he met Major Fisher, 
who had hurried up from Port Townsend with the 
same ideas in his mind that had brought the French- 
man from Waldron Island. The lawyer kept them 
waiting, and the Major and Mr. Graignic had time 
to discuss the matter. The fisherman now heard 
for the first time of the death of Collector Hogan, 


223 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

and the straitened circumstances of his family. He 
and the Major of course knew Grace and Pete were 
engaged to be married with the Collector's consent, 
although he had put them on probation for a period. 

Major Fisher did not know the reason of Pete's 
northern journey, and Mr. Graignic had pledged 
himself not to divulge the discovery of the placer 
mine at Blondin's creek. Therefore he, more than 
the others, realized the difficulty of getting into com- 
munication with his son. Sharpstein agreed with 
them that it was extremely desirable Pete should 
receive the news of his accession to fortune, and of 
Collector Hogan’s death, at as early a date as could 
be managed. If they availed themselves of ordi- 
nary sources of communication it seemed probable 
Pete might only receive their messages on his re- 
turn journey. 

At this juncture Major Fisher came out with a 
suggestion which, while it rather startled the old 
fisherman by its magnitude, was received with a 
good deal of favor by the worried lawyer. He 
knew, as the others could not realize, of the degree 
in which Pete’s pecuniary interests were suffering 
by lack of executive ownership. 

"‘Why don’t you go up yourself, Mr. Graignic, 
and bring your son back ?” 

“I quite agree with the Major!” said the Judge. 
“Do it, Mr. Graignic. I will supply the funds for 
necessary expense out of monies in my hands be- 
longing to the estate.’^ 


224 Captain Pete in Alaska 

'It’s more of an undertaking zan you under- 
stand,” replied Mr. Graignic, after a moment’s 
thought. “A steamer would be necessary, and it 
would mean considerable expense.” 

"Charter your steamer, or buy it,” said Judge , 
Sharpstein with decision. "I will open a credit for 
you at the bank of Cortesana for ten thousand dol- 
lars on which you can draw as you need the money.” 

This bewildering revelation of the altered finan- 
cial plane on which his son’s legacy placed him made 
the old man suddenly realize that small sums of 
money, and economical administration of them did 
not cut much of figure in the present case. 

"But,” he said, "even zen I may not find him. 
It’s like looking for a needle in a bale of hay.” 

"If you do, and bring him back, it will save 
him double the money — ” 

"i’ll go!” resolved the Frenchman. "I see ze 
matter is more important zan I comprehended.” 

"Good for you, Graignic!” congratulated the 
Major. 

Judge Sharpstein looked at his watch : 

"Let’s go around to the bank now, and arrange 
the money matters. I want you to have a free 
hand.” 

They found the cashier of the Bank of Cortesana 
at his desk. In ten minutes they left the building, 
and the fisherman had a check book in his pocket, 
and ten thousand dollars at his disposal. They re- 
turned to the office, and Mr. Graignic inquired if 


Captain Pete in Alaska 225 

the lawyer desired to convey any legal papers 
through him to Pete. 

‘^Since we have struck out this plan/’ said the 
Judge. ''I have thought it out clearly, and it seems 
even more the part of wisdom than at first. If cir- 
cumstances make it impossible for him to return 
with you, I will give you a power of attorney which 
he must execute. I have no further instructions 
for you. Act in every way as seems wisest in your 
judgment. If circumstances should arise in which 
you need more money, draw on me without hesita- 
tion, and I will see the matter through.” 

‘‘I will write to Pete, and Miss Hogan will also 
want to send some messages by you,” added the 
Major. ‘‘They will probably have more influence 
in hurrying the young rascal back than the news of 
this legacy.” 

“I will take ze night boat to Seattle,” said Mr. 
Graignic, arising. “I intend to be on my way 
wizout loss of time.” 

“Good enough !” returned Judge Sharpstein, 
shaking hands with the Frenchman warmly. “You 
are the man I wanted. I rely on you absolutely.” 

“I return to Port Townsend to-night,” said the 
Major. “Wire me from Seattle, and let me know 
if you’ve succeeded in getting a boat. I suppose 
you will stop at Port Townsend on your way out of 
the Sound?” 

“Port Townsend, and Waldron Island,” returned 
the fisherman, as he left the room. 


226 Captain Pete in Alaska 

The first person Major Fisher met on his return 
to Port Townsend was his son. Tom had arrived 
from California during his absence, and intended 
to remain with his father and mother until fall. The 
boy who had been Captain Pete’s earliest friend and 
closest intimate had grown into a young man of 
much promise. He was inclined to enjoy the 
brighter side of life rather than to linger along its 
lower levels, but he had developed greatly on the 
earnest side of his character. He was much in- 
terested on hearing that the death of Mr. Hagan 
had made Pete a rich man, and deeply sympathetic 
over the untoward fortunes of the Hogan family. 

The Fishers called on the Hogans that evening, 
and told them the result of the Major’s interview 
with Judge Sharpstein, and the old fisherman at 
Cortesana. Grace was delighted and exclaimed : 

^‘How splendid! I wish I could go myself with 
that dear old man.” 

Tom looked up suddenly, and catching her eye 
they exchanged a meaning glance. Shortly after- 
ward they found themselves by the window, and 
Grace said : 

'What did you mean, Tom?” 

'7 am going with Mr. Graignic to Alaska,” he 
answered. 'T haven’t mentioned it to father or 
mother yet, but I made up my mind as soon as I 
heard of the plan.” 

"That’s right! I’m so glad!” replied Grace. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 227 

^^How I wish I could accompany you. I don’t sup- 
pose it would be possible,” she added, wistfully. 

'‘I don’t know,” considered Tom doubtfully. 'T 
don’t hardly see how it could be managed.” 


CHAPTER XX 


A SECOND EXPEDITION STARTS FOR THE YUKON WITH 
pete's father in COMMAND 

T om fisher went to bed in a thoughtful 
mood. Even when the light was out and his 
head on the pillow he could not sleep. He had not 
spoken to his father of his intention to go with Mr. 
Graignic in search of Captain Pete, but it was not 
because of any faltering in his resolution. On the 
contrary, his purposes had become enlarged since 
his conversation with Grace. She and Tom had al- 
ways been friends, and the fact that she was en- 
gaged to be married to Captain Pete, had served as 
a link to bind them together. When he closed his 
eyes he beheld her face with its imploring pout as 
she asked him if it were possible for her to go along. 
Then it flashed on him that he had never seen her 
bright countenance look so worn and languid : 

'That girl is about done up with all this trouble. 
She's half ill now!" he soliloquised. "After all, 
why could not we arrange to take her ? It would 
do her a world of good, and what a glorious sur- 
prise it would be to old Pete if we brought her to 
him in the wilds. She'd be on the boat all the time, 
and have no hardship to endure, and father says 
228 


229 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

he understands that the trip is safe at this time of 
the year. Old Mr. Graignic would look after her 
like a daughter — and Pm as good as a brother! 
By George, Pm going to try to fix it up T’ 

He turned over on his side, and wooed the drowsy 
god with more success. 

When Major Fisher came to breakfast table the 
next morning Tom handed him a yellow envelope 
left by a messenger boy, and with his mother 
awaited expectantly for him to open it The Major 
glanced at their faces with a smile, laid the tele- 
gram by the side of his plate, and with aggravating 
deliberation helped himself to a slice of ham. His 
wife looked vexed, then amused, and finally burst 
out: 

'‘How can you be such a tease ! Open that tele- 
gram immediately!” 

"It must be from Mr. Graignic, Dad, and we 
want to hear the news,” added his son. 

"Oh,” said the Major sedately, laying down his 
fork, and lifting the message. "I see! Now, it 
didn’t occur to me that you two were curious.” 

They both laughed at the absurdity of this re- 
mark, and he opened the telegram, which in reality 
he was keenly interested in. He glanced over it, 
and then smoothing out the page, read aloud : 

" Major Thomas Fisher. 

“ Have found, and will buy suitable steamer to-day. Want crew 
of three reliable men. One engineer. Do you know any one suit- 
able? Answer by 4 p. m., Hotel Northern, Seattle.* 


Graignic.” 


230 Captain Pete in Alaska 

The Major was about to comment on the message 
when he happened to glance at his son. He under- 
stood the expression on that young man’s face as 
plainly as if he had spoken, and his own features 
became grave. Instead of speaking he waited for 
Tom: 

‘T know of one ‘reliable’ man that will ship for 
the voyage;” said the youth. “And perhaps,” he 
added thoughtfully, “I could get him two more !” 

“You mean to go yourself?” queried his father. 

“Yes, father, I made up my mind last night. 
And say. Dad, why cannot we take Grace Hogan 
along? She’s ill, and worn to a shadow of her for- 
mer self with grief for her father. Pete would 
rather see her than a letter from her !” 

His mother had looked alarmed when he first an- 
nounced his intentions, but now she fell back in her 
chair with a gasp of horrified amazement : 

“Gracie!” she murmured. “Up to Alaska? Up 
the Yukon River !” 

“Yes! Why not?” insisted Tom with earnest- 
ness. “The trip would make her well, and distract 
her mind from her loss. And, as I understand it, 
there are no especial dangers on the journey.” 

The Major had looked from one to the other 
without a chance to speak. Now he broke in : 

“You seem to have this plan cut and dried, young 
man I” 

“I thought it all out last night after I went to 
bed,” acknowledged Tom. 


231 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘‘Well/’ continued the Major, “I suppose there is 
no reason why you should not go if you want to, 
although I had not contemplated it. But Grace 
Hogan is another affair! Would it be quite 
proper ?” 

He looked at Mrs. Fisher, whom he knew to be 
a safe guide in such matters, but Tom cut in before 
she had a chance to speak : 

“Why, Dad, the old fisherman would be a father 
to the poor girl and Til volunteer to do the fraternal 
act myself. And think what it will mean to old 
Peter 

This last argument was a strong one with both 
the Major and Mrs. Fisher, for they both loved 
Pete dearly as they did their own son. 

“What about it, mother?” asked the Major, evi- 
dently disposed to give his consent to the plan if his 
wife endorsed it. 

It rather overwhelmed Mrs. Fisher to have the 
burden of the responsibility thrown upon her, and 
she was inclined to rebel : 

“I have not gotten used to the idea of Tom going 
yet !” she complained. “And now you two want to 
make me decide whether Grace shall go. It’s 
hardly fair.” She pondered a moment with her 
head on her hand. “I — do — not — really — see — 
any — impropriety — in the matter. She is engaged 
to marry Pete, and Mr. Graignic is his father. Of 
course, it is unusual, but under the circumstances — 
and the dear girl certainly does need the trip !” 


2^2 Captain Pete in Alaska 

'‘In short/’ laughed the Major, “you think there 
is no reason why she should not go if she wishes ?” 

“Why, no!” confessed the lady somewhat defi- 
antly. “Of course, if this were the effete east — ” 

Her husband and son both chuckled with huge 
amusement : 

“Lydia,” remarked the Major, “you have broad- 
ened wonderfully since you came to this coast.” 

“Mother is all to the good!” announced Tom em- 
phatically. 

“Who did you have in mind for the other mem- 
bers of Mr. Graignic’s crew?” asked the elder man. 

“Do you remember Joe Hanlon? The big long- 
shoreman that the captain of the Bonito attempted 
to shanghai when Cloon was trying to make his 
get-away ?” 

“Of course,” recalled the Major. “He had been 
in the navy, and he was a friend of Pete’s, too, 
wasn’t he ?” 

“That’s the chap,” returned Tom. “I happened 
to meet him yesterday, and he told me he was out of 
a job.” 

“Just the man !” commented the father with satis- 
faction. 

“He had two chums at that time,” continued Tom 
tentatively. 

“Well, see him this morning,” concluded the 
Major. ‘We’ll take up the affair of Miss Grace 
later.” 

Tom knew that matter was just as good as set- 


233 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

tied, and he ached to get a chance to tell her the 
good news. After the morning meal he descended 
the hill to the lower town to hunt up Joe Hanlon. 
He did not know exactly where to look, and remem- 
bered that Murph — the Port Townsend newsboy 
Captain Pete had sent to McNiehs Island to notify 
the warden of the projected escape of Bill Kelly — 
was a friend of Hanlon’s, and would probably be 
able to put his hand upon him. 

Murph was now a stalwart lad of seventeen. He 
had long since graduated from the business of sell- 
ing papers, and was a trusted employee of Bernstein 
& Company, the wholesale grocers on Water Street. 
Tom found him in the shipping office, sleeves rolled 
up, packing a bill of goods. 

‘'Hello, Mister Fisher,” he exclaimed with a 
bright glance at Tom. “It’s a good sight for sore 
eyes you are! And how is that gr-rand lad. Cap- 
tain Pete ? I’ll be wid you in a minute.” 

He had the marking pot in his hand, and as he 
spoke he rapidly printed the shipping directions on 
a crate of raisins in a bold hand that made it evi- 
dent he had made up some of the deficiencies of 
his early education. With a last artistic flourish 
he returned the brush to the ink pot, and turned to 
Tom as he rolled down his sleeves. 

“And what can I be after doing for you. Mister 
Tom?” he asked. 

“I want to find Joe Hanlon, Murph. Can you 
tell me where he is ?” 


234 Captain Pete in Alaska 

''Sure ! He's up at our house this minute. He's 
the lone man now, sir. Con Miller and Harry 
Prentice, his mates, have gone to Seattle, and he 
has come to boord with the mother and me. It's 
the good man he is, sir !" 

He put on his coat, left word in the office he was 
stepping out for a moment, and returned to Tom: 

"We'll go right up, sir. And so ye want to see 
old Joe?" he said with some curiosity in his voice. 

Tom could see no reason for secrecy, and related 
the whole story to Murph being aware how much 
the boy was interested in the fortunes of Pete. 
The young Irishman hung on his words. That 
Pete was now a capitalist delighted more than it 
surprised him. When the tale arrived at the point 
where it was determined that Mr. Graignic should 
go to Alaska in search of his son, and at the last 
to the telegram announcing that he was in need of 
a crew to man the steamer he had purchased, Murph 
became thoughtful, and looked at Tom with an ex- 
pression that the latter did not quite understand 
at the time, although it became comprehensible 
later. 

Murph called the longshoreman when they ar- 
rived at the house, and left him conferring with 
Tom Fisher. He himself seemed to have impor- 
tant private business with his mother which needed 
instant attention. He drew her out to the kitchen, 
and talked with her excitedly for five minutes. At 
the end of that time she apparently acquiesced in 


235 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

some plan he urged, and he returned in great glee 
to the presence of Tom and Hanlon who had just 
come to an agreement. 

‘‘Murph,’’ said Hanlon, ‘^you^ll have to look out 
for a new boarder! Pve just signed on to go to 
Alaska this summer with Captain Pete’s father.” 

The lad laughed in high spirits as he answered: 

‘'It’s the mother who’ll have to be after looking 
out for two new boorders. I’m goin’ to ‘sign on’ 
for that same v’y’ge meself if Mister Tom will take 
me. Ye needed two men besides yerself, didn’t ye, 
sir?” 

Tom was mightily pleased at securing two such 
desirable recruits. Murph, like most boys of his 
class brought up in a sea port town, was thoroughly 
familiar with craft of the kind in which the trip to 
Alaska would be made, and he had discovered in 
his talk with Hanlon that the longshoreman was 
not only a seaman, but a qualified engineer, a fact 
he knew would prove gratifying to Mr. Graignic. 
Murph volunteered to arrange with Bernstein & 
Company for leave of absence, and he and Hanlon 
were ready to report for duty at any moment. 
Tom started ofif to notify the Major of the unex- 
pected success of his mission. 

The Major promptly wired Mr. Graignic that he 
had a crew of three reliable men — one a competent 
engineer — ready to his hand. An hour after he 
had sent the telegram he received one in answer 
couched in the following words : 


236 Captain Pete in Alaska 

“ Send your men on by night boat. Report Hotel Northern. 
Have purchased steamer, and am getting ready for sea. Hope to 
make Port Townsend, outward bound, inside of seventy-two hours. 

Graignic.” 

This telegram put them all in a flutter: 

‘Well/' observed Tom's father. “The old fisher- 
man is certainly a man of action !" 

“But," complained Mrs. Fisher, “I am to lose my 
boy almost the moment he has arrived at home. 
And poor Gracie !" she suddenly remembered. 
“How on earth will she ever be able to get her 
clothes ready for such a long trip ?" 

They both laughed at this. The problem did not 
seem such a serious one to the masculine mind. 
Then the Major said: 

“But we must get busy, Tom. Your mother is 
right. There is no time to waste. You find 
Murph, and tell him to have Joe Hanlon with him 
ready to meet you at the boat. I will go around 
to the Hogan's at once, and tell Gracie that she can 
go on the trip if Pete's father sees no objection to 
the plan. You had better come along, Lydia, and 
help her pack !" 

When Grace was told the result of Tom’s inter- 
ference in her behalf she gave a gurgle of joy, and 
rushed off to prepare her mother's mind for the 
proposition. Mrs. Hogan took the announcement 
with more equanimity than they had expected. 
After thinking it over a moment she consented, and 
promptly began with Mrs. Fisher to go over her 
daughter’s wardrobe, and arrange that she should 


Captain Pete in Alaska 237 

be properly equipped for the journey. To a ''mere 
man’' this would have seemed a sufficiently simple 
matter for a trip where only Indians and the rudest 
pioneers would be met, but it took these ladies every 
moment of the time left them to outfit the young 
woman to their approval. 

The next morning Tom Fisher with his two re- 
cruits lined up in the office of the Hotel Northern 
in Seattle. Before they had time to ask for him, 
the fisherman came down from the breakfast room. 
Tom had enjoined his father against wiring the 
identity of the three men he had engaged for Mr. 
Graignic, and he thought when his gaze first rested 
on Tom that the meeting was accidental, but the 
next instant his rapid eye took in Murph and Han- 
lon, both of whom he knew, and he understood that 
this was the "crew” the Major had sent him. The 
hardy old fisherman had come to the conclusion that 
in his present character of captain of a steamer it 
was good form to pay more attention to his personal 
appearance than was his habit on Waldron Island, 
and he was attired in a well-fitting suit of Scotch 
tweed, which he wore with a French nattiness that 
was as surprising as it was unexpected to those 
who had known him in his ordinary garb. His 
hair and beard were also trimmed, and altogether, 
as Tom thought, he looked like a man that was 
worth while. 

"Does zis mean zat you are goin’ along wiz me 
as deck hand, Mr. Fisher?” he asked with a smile. 


238 Captain Pete in Alaska 

as he shook hands with them. As Tom nodded, he 
continued : ''Of course Hanlon and Murph are all 
right, and ze best fellows I could get.’’ 

"What’s the matter with me, Mr. Graignic?” 
asked Tom ruefully. "Don’t you want me?” 

"Why, yes, I suppose I will take you,” he said 
with a smile. "But you will have to work pretty 
hard.” 

Tom laughed at this. At the beginning he had 
really been a little uneasy, fearing the fisherman 
might consider him rather ornamental than useful. 
He protested : 

"I think you will find I can keep up my end, sir.” 

"Well, I don’t doubt it,” the Frenchman replied. 
"Every man has to pull his pound in a trip of zis 
kind, you know, unless he goes as a supernumerary. 
Now suppose we all go down to ze bunkers. Ze 
Tyee lies zere coaling. I shall try to get my stores 
aboard so we can make a start by noon.” 

When he heard the name of the vessel, Tom 
recollected the sloop Tyee in which he had taken 
his first sail on Puget Sound waters with this man’s 
son, then a ragged ignorant urchin peddling fish 
through the Islands of the San Juan archipelago. 
It was that very trip that started the train of events 
that led up to his coming to Port Townsend, gain- 
ing an education, and resulted in the career that 
had made the little fisher boy one of the substantial 
men in this new state of Washington. A sudden 
rush of feeling brought the blood to his face, and 


Captain Pete in Alaska 239 

made his eyes wet as he extended his hand to his 
chum’s father. He exclaimed : 

‘^Hurrah for the new Tyee, Mr. Graignic. She 
may be bigger and smarter, but I can’t ever love 
her so much as I did the old sloop that Pete used 
to be captain of before he passed us all in the race 
for fortune.” 

The fisherman looked at Tom with a very kindly 
expression in his keen gray eyes as he answered : 

‘Tf it had not been for you and your fazer ze 
lad might never have gotten ze start zat has re- 
sulted in placing him where he is. We can never 
forget zat.” 

^‘Oh, come,” said Tom, rather ashamed of his 
emotion. 'Tf he hadn’t had it in him it would 
never have come out.” 

‘Terhaps zat is true, too,” assented the proud 
father as they started for the coal bunkers. 


CHAPTER XXI 


THE TYEE's lady PASSENGER. TWIN-PEAK MOUN- 
TAIN AND DESSERT-SPOON BAR 

A S the sun came up on the morning of the first of 
July the Tyee steamed into Port Townsend, 
and made fast to the wharf. Major Fisher was on 
the lookout for her. Captain Graignic the elder 
stood on the bow, and deck hand Tom Fisher threw 
the warp attached to the hawser by which they were 
to be tied fast to the post on the wharf. Tom was 
so determined to fulfill his captain’s requirements 
that he did not recognize his parent’s presence by 
more than a hasty gesture until the steamer was 
safely moored. Then the fisherman waved his 
hand to him, and he leaped ashore. 

Captain Graignic joined them in a moment, and 
they saw engineer Joe Hanlon protrude his grimy 
face from the scuttle leading to the engine room. 
Murph paraded the deck with somewhat osten- 
tatious indifference to the inquiring looks of ac- 
quaintances, putting things in ship-shape order. 

'Tsn’t she a beaut?” demanded Tom as they faced 
the steamer. 

Indeed she was, and the Major acknowledged the 
240 


241 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

fact cordially. The fisherman, in the exercise of 
his large discretionary powers from Judge Sharp- 
stein, had purchased a brand-new stern-wheeled 
river steamer just oif the ways. It was up to date 
in every respect and as good a craft of the class as 
there was afloat. Captain Graignic explained to 
Major Fisher — Tom now learned the fact for the 
first time — that he had bought the Tyee at an ex- 
ceedingly reasonable price by paying spot cash. 
He felt sure he could sell the vessel for more money 
than she had cost when he was through with her, 
and felt, in this view of the matter, that he was 
justified in purchasing outright rather than charter- 
ing. 

Major Fisher approved the fisherman’s business 
sagacity, and wrote to Judge Sharpstein congratu- 
lating him on selecting Mr. Graignic as leader of 
the search party. 

Then Captain Graignic heard that the Tyee was 
going to have a lady passenger, if he gave his ap- 
proval to the plan. He was strongly in favor of 
it, and when told that Grade’s health in some meas- 
ure depended on the voyage he became enthusiastic. 
He led the Major aboard, showed him the comfort- 
able after-cabin, and declared it should be given to 
'Tete’s girl.” The Major suggested some minor 
alterations, and assured the anxious fisherman she 
would be satisfied with her accommodations. Be- 
fore the Major left Captain Graignic announced that 
he would leave Port Townsend that evening, and 


242 Captain Pete in Alaska 

lie over all night at Waldron Island in order to bid 
adieu to his family, and arrange for his absence. 

The adventurers on board the Grade breathed 
more freely as the tossing dory became a speck in 
the distance. 

“Now,’' said Pete, “we’re oil for the mine! I 
don’t believe that outfit will trouble us any more.” 

Ib-won assured them there were no obstacles to 
navigation for a long distance except the fierce cur- 
rent. They found the driftwood made excellent 
fuel, and produced plenty of steam. As they 
churned merrily along all congregated on deck, and 
gazed at the shore with interest. They soon began 
to realize that the Yukon River did not flow 
through the barren waste they had imagined. Be- 
fore noon they passed a little tumble-down settle- 
ment that had formerly been a trading station 
belonging to the Russians. The Greek chapel still 
survived, and the priest, Ib-won said, had a numer- 
ous flock of followers among the Indians, his father 
being a Russian who had married one of the Esqui- 
mau women. The church looked strangely out of 
place amid its barbaric surroundings. Many of the 
interior fittings were of solid silver, and polished 
brass, and where these more or less expensive 
decorations were lacking they were replaced by 
home-made devices of a cheaper kind, which were 
carefully designed to be attractive to the eye of the 
Indian convert. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 243 

After leaving this place behind, they came to a 
considerable Indian village, and as there was a lit- 
tle harbor in front formed by the projecting bank, 
they stopped for an hour to view it more closely. 
It contained twenty or thirty families, who lived in 
birch-bark houses. Our friends thought that while 
these might be comfortable enough during the sum- 
mer season, it would be difficult to keep warm in 
them during the Arctic winter, when the thermom- 
eter ranged between thirty-five and sixty degrees be- 
low zero. They made acquaintance here with the 
large skin boats or Oomiens these people use for 
river traffic. When they want to go up stream 
with a loaded Oomien they hitch dogs to it like 
mules on a tow-path, and a team of the powerful 
and intelligent animals will drag a boat laden down 
with two or three tons of freight at the rate of fif- 
teen or twenty miles a day. 

Joe Floyd noticed a pile of cordwood ranked upon 
the river bank, and inquired the reason of it as it 
was obvious the natives were not sufficiently 
fore-handed to provide fuel for winter. It turned 
out to be a private enterprise of the head man of 
the village, and was on sale to any passing steamer. 
Ib-won said they would find cordwood at intervals 
to the further end of the river. This relieved them 
of anxiety on the score of fuel. 

Captain Pete ran the Grade night as well as day, 
and they advanced rapidly. It was well he took 
advrntage of favoring conditions for the next 


244 Captain Pete in Alaska 

morning that headwind set in again. The Esqui- 
mau told them it was apt to prevail almost con- 
tinuously at that season on this part of the river, 
but further in the interior they would leave it be- 
hind. The gale blew six hours, and Pete started 
his engine the moment it was practicable to make 
headway. They forged ahead fifteen or twenty 
miles before it began again, and they were once 
more obliged to make fast to the bank. For the 
next two days this was a sample of their experi- 
ences, and then they seemed to have left the wind- 
belt behind them. 

As they ascended, the river grew more interest- 
ing. The occasional islands which had dotted the 
waters at the beginning became more numerous 
until they seemed to be passing through an archi- 
pelago, which barely let the water pass between. 
The sun was bright, the stream less turbid, and they 
were enchanted with the picturesqueness and beauty 
of their surroundings. The Yukon was ten or 
twelve miles wide, and both sides clothed with ever- 
green forest. Even the islands were wooded to 
their edges, and fringed with sand. As they drew 
past one after another it was a succession of new 
and entrancing views. 

‘‘By the Scales of the Armadillo \” exclaimed the 
ex-revenue man in high spirits. “If one of those 
artist fellows I used to see around Victoria in 
knickerbockers was here, he’d go crazy with delight 
at the chance to make pictures.” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 245 

'It sure is a fine country,’’ confirmed the rancher. 

Their young leader heartily agreed with them, 
and Ib-won, who had taken on the attitude of a 
host, glowed with pride as he noted their apprecia- 
tion. The endless panorama continued to unfold 
before their eyes like a moving picture. Every day 
they passed one or more Indian villages, and it was 
no uncommon thing to meet the natives in their 
boats going from one place to another. 

When they were obliged to stop for wood, they 
found the plague of mosquitoes, of which they had 
an intimation before, as bad as ever. Not only 
were the ‘^singing birds,” as Ib-won called them, 
present in myriads, but swarms of tiny black gnats, 
whose bite was even fiercer than that of the larger 
insect, made it impossible for them to remain in the 
open air without the protection of gloves, and the 
netting headgear. 

Wild game existed in astonishing quantities. It 
was a common thing to see deer crossing the river 
by swimming from island to island, and they had no 
difficulty in keeping their table well supplied with 
venison through this source. Joe Floyd was hunts- 
man in chief, and they came to believe that any 
wild animal they saw was as good as in the pot if 
he marked it down as his own. Once they discov- 
ered a huge black bear eating berries on the bank 
some hundreds of yards ahead. The beast seemed 
as large as a buffalo, and Pete exclaimed : 

^'By Jove, I wish I had that fellow’s hide !” 


246 Captain Pete in Alaska 

^Tain’t far enough in the summer to be mangy 
yet/’ drawled the rancher. 'Til get it for you.” 

They dropped him ashore, and threw out their 
kedge. Half an hour later they heard the thin re- 
port of the woodsman’s rifle, and he came out on 
a sand-bar a quarter of a mile ahead and waved his 
hat. By the time the Grade had reached the point 
the old hunter had ripped the skin from the animal, 
and cut ol¥ the best part of the loin for a roast. It 
took three of them to carry the pelt down from the 
ravine to the side of the Grade, and they had to 
hoist it aboard by a tackle. 

Once they killed a swimming moose, and this time 
Ib-won played the chief part in the drama. They 
were going through a broad, clear part of the river 
when the Esquimau became excited, and pointed 
out a black speck in the water near the middle of 
the stream, which his keen eye had discerned to be 
crowned with moose antlers. He begged Pete to 
be allowed to kill it in his own way. The young 
man consented, and they manned the small boat 
with Ib-won in the prow armed with the saw- 
toothed spear which was his only weapon. As the 
rowers pulled the boat on the moose, he jabbed the 
point of his spear into its side until he succeeded 
in turning the badgered animal’s head toward the 
Grade; although it had been swimming straight 
away when overtaken. When the poor beast tried 
to veer from the straight course, Ib-won spurred 


Captain Pete in Alaska 247 

him until he forced him back. After driving his 
victim to within a few yards of the steamer, he 
transfixed him with a skillful thrust clear through 
his body from side to side. As the moose gave up 
the ghost, Ib-won seized his antler, and supported 
the carcass until they got alongside and made a rope 
fast to it. 

Captain Pete had brought his fly rod, and plenty 
of hooks, and lines. He was an expert fisherman, 
and though they all turned anglers when the oppor- 
tunity served, was the most successful. The catch 
was principally grayling from a quarter up to a 
pound in weight. It was a beautiful and delicately- 
flavored fish, and made a welcome addition to their 
bill of fare. 

With these diversions everybody was happy, and 
the days sped along rapidly. At the end of two 
weeks Pete came on deck one morning after break- 
fast, and said to Kennedy and Floyd : 

''As nearly as I can figure we must be getting in 
the neighborhood of the Frenchman's creek." 

"You don’t mean to say," asked Kennedy, "that 
weVe come sixteen hundred miles already?" 

"Nigh on to it!" asserted Floyd. 

"Yes," resumed Pete. "I think I am about 
right. I went over my log this morning, and I have 
a fairly accurate idea of the distance we’ve made. 
We ought to be within fifty miles of Dessert Spoon 
Bar." 


248 Captain Pete in Alaska 

‘'By the Reindeer’s Tail!” exclaimed Kennedy. 
“We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for that twin- 
peaked snow mountain.” 

“If I understand the story right,” remarked 
Floyd, “you don’t see the mountain until you are 
abreast of the Spoon sand-bar.” 

“No,” confirmed Pete. “That’s how I inter- 
preted it. Some natural trend or conformation of 
the country makes it invisible along the river ex- 
cept from that one point. I think that from this 
time we had better travel only in full daylight, and 
keep a sharp look out.” 

The others agreed, and Floyd called Ib-won. 
The old hunter possessed a talent for communicat- 
ing with animals and outlandish people. This fa- 
cility had caused him to become the medium of 
communication between the Esquimau and the 
others when any especial information was required. 
Captain Pete and Kennedy watched in silence as 
he began to describe the Twin-Peaks and the Des- 
sert Spoon Bar to the native. Ib-won saw they were 
deeply interested, and gave close attention to Floyd. 
The latter began by describing the two peaks on the 
mountain. He had picked up a few words of 
Esquimau, and finally drew an imaginary moun- 
tain split in half at the top. By using the word 
mel-rok, meaning two, and oppa — snow — he made 
him understand he meant a snow-covered moun- 
tain with two peaks. When he was certain he had 
this image planted on his mind, he patiently tried to 


Captain Pete in Alaska 249 

picture that peculiarly-shaped sand-bar. Joe hap- 
pened to know that ar-thru-tuk was spoon in Ib- 
won’s tongue, but he was at a loss to convey the 
idea to him that what he meant was a river-bar 
shaped like the ar-thru-tuk. As they wallowed on 
in the explanation Floyd happened to raise his eyes. 
The Grade was at the moment passing a long, slen- 
der sand-spit. Like a flash he pointed it out to 
the Esquimau, and then to his chalk diagram on 
the deck, and repeated the native word. In sudden 
enlightenment Ib-won caught a glimpse of what 
the white man was driving at, and his dark face be- 
came alive with intelligence as with a sweeping 
gesture he included the two rude sketches — one of 
Dessert Spoon Bar, and the other of Twin-Peak 
mountain in one. He had fully fathomed Floyd^s 
meaning, and it was evident before he spoke that 
he knew of Blondin^s creek. He pointed up the 
river with a dazzling smile of joy at being able to 
tell them what they apparently so greatly desired to 
know: 

'‘Ah-ah! Ah-ah!'’ he shouted. ''Yes, yes! one 
— two — fifty miles 

It was evident he had recognized the locality, and 
was attempting to tell them they were not far from 
it. "Fifty miles’’ apparently meant to him a dis- 
tance not much further than his "one-two.” But 
the rancher was still unsatisfied. The rest of his 
task however, proved less formidable, and he drew 
out of Ib-won that before they had eaten (an event 


250 Captain Pete in Alaska 

from which he dated all occurrences) twice they 
would arrive at what he called Ill-rit, by which name 
the rancher maintained he meant Twin-Peak moun- 
tain. 

‘Well, we’ll know whether he is right or not by 
supper time,” said Captain Pete, “for that is the 
second meal from now.” 

As they realized they had almost reached their 
goal, the thought sobered them. Since they had 
taken up their adventure they had been so inces- 
santly occupied in its prosecution they had hardly 
had time to let their imaginations dwell on the glit- 
tering prospect of the riches that lay hidden in that 
lonely creek ready for them to take out of the 
ground. Floyd had followed many a gold rush in 
California, and was able to be philosophic. He had 
known the feeling before, and could take the disap- 
pointment with equanimity. 

With Captain Kennedy it was diiferent. The 
scheme, in a sense, was his own. Blondin had be- 
queathed him the wonderful secret, and (to tell the 
truth) he had hugged it to his breast and gloated 
over it until it had become a portion of his being 
even before they had left Victoria on the actual 
quest. He was a poor man, and the possibility of 
the sudden acquisition of more than competence — 
even wealth — in this rapid and pleasant way had so 
fired his heart that he had come to dwell on it as a 
certainty. If his hopes should be blasted it would 


Captain Pete in Alaska 251 

be the most serious blow he had ever received, and 
he refused to contemplate the possibility. 

Captain Pete was less concerned. The boy 
was level headed, and from the start he had re- 
strained himself from counting the prospect of dig- 
ging a fortune out of the ground in this easy way 
as more than a possibility, or as he had called it in 
his mind ‘'a bit of a speculation.” He had needed 
the diversion, and took up the adventure because it 
seemed unalloyed pleasure with a chance of profit. 
If Blondin’s creek had been rifled of its golden 
treasure before they arrived, or the Frenchman’s 
tale proved a romance unfounded on fact, he would 
not attach a great amount of importance to the dis- 
aster. Besides unlike his friend Kennedy, he al- 
ready possessed a fortune sufficient to the modest 
needs of his life. 


CHAPTER XXII 


THE SCOTCH TRADER AND WHAT HE TOLD FLOYD 

I T was about lo o'clock in the morning when Ib- 
won told them they would arrive at Ill-rit at the 
second meal. As the day wore on the members of 
the Yellowbird Gold Mining Company became more 
or less pre-occupied. Dinner was perfunctorily 
dispatched and they returned hastily to the deck of 
the Grade to hang over the port rail and scrutinize 
every opening reach of the great river. They did 
not talk much, and when they did their conversation 
was brief and abstracted. 

The Yukon had narrowed considerably as they 
came towards its headwaters and the current was 
swifter. In addition to this the river bed was full 
of sand, mud, and gravel bars. These were pecu- 
liarly aggravating just at this time when the heart 
of every one was set on getting ahead as rapidly 
as possible. There was always a particularly swift 
current in the passages by the spits and gravel bars, 
and once they shaved one so closely that the Grade's 
nose caught slightly in the shingle, and she hung 
for a moment as if undecided whether to stop or go 
on. Kennedy swore softly but fervently to him- 
252 


253 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

self, while even Floyd and Pete looked more serious 
than usual, until her head swung off under the 
thrust of the engine and the vessel resumed her 
course. It was a glorious day and the ardent sun 
shone down out of the cloudless blue sky. The 
thermometer registered a little less than a hundred 
degrees inside of the wheel house out of the sun. 
In fact, it seemed even warmer than that to our 
adventurers, for the reflections from the orb of day 
gleaming upon the waters of the river redoubled the 
heat. 

The Grade was now beginning to emerge from 
the mountainous district though they could still see 
a chain of great snow-covered peaks on the left. 
The soil was also changing character and seemed 
to be thick and black wherever it was exposed to 
observation by the caving in of the river bank. 
The grass grew luxuriantly and many prairies 
freckled the timber along shore, though even in 
these there was an undergrowth of tangled stunted 
brush, which would have made walking unpleasant 
if not impossible. In some of the little open plains 
the ground was covered, as Pete could discern 
through his field glasses, with a sponge-like moss 
or peat. Where the bank was gravelly — so as to 
give good drainage — and the river excavated it 
gradually, this thick moss was so interwoven that 
it would not break when the river banks were un- 
dermined but remained compactly attached to the 
crest, forming huge grass, root-woven blankets a 


254 Captain Pete in Alaska 

foot thick that festooned and overhung the gravel 
fifteen or twenty feet below. This moss would 
reach clear to the water and was heavy enough to 
uphold the weight of a bear or moose. At places 
great ragged patches were torn out of the hem of 
this green blanket by the limbs or roots of drifting 
logs, and the edges of the moss would be pulled 
down so that it formed a fringe along the shore to 
the surface of the water. 

As the afternoon wore on the sky became banked 
with clouds and the heat was less oppressive. The 
river was about seven miles wide, and unusually 
clear from sand bars and islands. Pete held his 
course well towards the port bank, and half a mile 
from the shore. Ib-won now became attentive to 
his surroundings. He took his station on the bow 
of the boat and scanned the shores keenly on either 
side. At that point, according to the Grade's com- 
pass, the Yukon’s channel bore east and west. To 
the northward, perhaps fifty miles away but plainly 
perceptible in the clear atmosphere, was the broken 
mountain chain. A mile or two ahead the river 
turned about the base of a great clay bluff and 
sheered to the eastward. 

As they approached this promontory Ib-won 
could scarcely contain himself. He was evidently 
full of some anticipation, but was half afraid that 
his expectations might be disappointed. His rest- 
less gaze roved from bank to bank as if he were 
trying to identify each rock in sight. When the 


255 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

Grade drew close to the bluff, and hugged it round- 
ing the point, he could scarcely restrain his excite- 
ment. Pete and Floyd had observed the Esqui- 
mau’s excitement, and were watching him closely. 
Kennedy was too much absorbed to notice what 
was going on. 

The little vessel swept around the headland and 
came into a clear reach of water a mile long. She 
swung in into the open stretch with increased 
speed, and nearer to the port bank than before. 
The shore was shelving and a short distance ahead 
the spruce and birch forest dwindled into a small 
prairie. As they churned their way against the 
current, and opened up the shore foot by foot Ib- 
won leaned over the rail, and concentrated his gaze 
on the point where the forest terminated and the 
plain began. In a moment more they swept past 
the last tree, and it was seen that the shore was 
scooped out behind the point into a little oval bay 
into the middle of which a peculiarly-shaped sand- 
spit projected from the mouth of the creek into the 
river from a narrow gulch. 

Ib-won slowly straightened up, his eyes still 
clinging to the shore. Pete and Floyd, and Ken- 
nedy who had also caught the infection of the mo- 
ment, crowded to the bow as they came opposite 
the point of sand. Pete silently nodded at ’the 
others, his heart too close to his mouth to permit 
him to speak. 

It was the exact shape of a spoon, with the bowl 


256 Captain Pete in Alaska 

towards the deep water, and the long slender handle 
leading to the shore! 

The next moment the Esquimau let out a falsetto, 
eldritch screech of excitement — that roused Dope 
from peaceful slumber and brought him scurrying 
to the others — and pointed into the distance. 

'Tll-rit \” he cried triumphantly. 

It was a fact. As they came exactly in front 
of Dessert Spoon Bar they looked north along the 
edge of the towering forest, and far in the distance 
gleamed the twin peaks of the great mountain sen- 
tinel of Blondin’s placer mine. 

Captain Pete was nearest to the whistle. He 
reached out his hand and pulled the cord. A long, 
shrill screech of triumph pierced the air and while 
it was still sounding Kennedy jerked off his hat 
and threw it high as he hurrahed at the top of his 
lungs. Pete and Kennedy were starting to follow 
his example when they instantaneously became 
silent, and remained as if frozen suddenly to the 
deck. 

From the upper reaches of the river came to 
their ears — faintly, but clearly perceptible — the 
sound of an answering steam whistle. This new 
and unexpected development brought the three 
members of the Yellow Bird Gold Mining Company 
to their bearings in a jiffy. 

^*By the Tail of my Grandmother’s Black Cat!” 
ejaculated Kennedy, thoroughly surprised by the 
unexpected .answering whistle. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 257 

‘‘By the Great Horn Spoon!’’ the rancher ex- 
claimed. 

Pete looked from one to the other before he 
spoke: “Yes,” he said as if in answer. “It is 
rather annoying! It would not do to go ashore 
just now and look after gold, if there are any other 
white men around.” 

“Not much,” agreed Kennedy promptly. “And 
by the Hyena’s Stripes ! Those other fellows don’t 
want to go ashore here either, or else there is go- 
ing to be trouble.” 

“Keep cool,” advised the rancher, “ ’tain’t likely 
as fur’s I kin see.” 

“Of course there’s another boat up there,” 
Pete remarked. “Who can it be? There’s . one 
thing certain ! It isn’t Lee Sing and the Dragon's 
Fang outfit, for they’re behind us.” t 

“I s’pose likely,” the rancher said, “that it’s a 
trader, maybe from one of the big fur companies. 
I’ve heerd they come up the river once in a while 
in little steamers to barter for peltries with the 
injuns.” 

“Yes, that’s likely,” agreed the ex-revenue man, 
somewhat ashamed of his premature excitement. 

“Well then,” said Pete, “all we’ve got to do is 
to keep straight ahead until we meet up with the 
fellow. I guess it will be better if we come across 
him further up the river. So far as I can se^Jt 
will be more sensible not to draw attention to 
Dessert Spoon^^Bar by stopping in the neighbor- 


258 Captain Pete in Alaska 

hood. We can hang around our trading friend 
pretending we are in the same business until he 
goes on down the river, or at any rate gets out of 
the vicinity. Then we will come back to the Bar 
and see what Blondin’s Placer mine amounts to.’^ 

The others both agreed that Pete’s plan was the 
proper one, and they quietly continued their journey 
leaving Ill-rit and the Dessert Spoon Bar behind 
them. They cast many longing glances back as 
they continued their journey, and Ib-won in par- 
ticular rum-nated with some contempt on the curious 
mental vagaries of his white friends. Why they 
should so eagerly hunt for Ill-rit and then ignore 
it entirely when they had reached the spot was 
something entirely beyond his comprehension; 
and after revolving the matter over in his simple 
mind he came to the conclusion that all his civi- 
lized friends were slightly idiotic, albeit good- 
natured and pleasant to associate with. He let it 
go at this. 

Half a mile further on the whistle sounded 
again, and Pete gave an answering blast. It was 
apparent the two vessels were rapidly approaching 
one another, and in fact twenty minutes later they 
saw a puff of steam through the shrubbery of an 
intervening point and could hear the exhaust of 
the other steamer. It shortly hove in sight and 
turned out to be a little flat-bottomed river craft 
of 8 or 9 tons burden with a crew of one man. 
There was a little cove close to where they met, and 


259 


Captain Pete in 'Alaska 

both vessels ran in, and threw out a hedge. The 
stranger had a bark canoe, and he launched it and 
paddled over to the Grade before they had time to 
pull up their dingy for the purpose of making him a 
visit. He was an alert, red-haired Scotch Cana- 
dian. He told Pete his name was Angus Sinclair, 
and that he had come up the river the year before 
looking for rare and valuable skins. He was 
attached to no Company and had been trading and 
trapping on his own account. Our adventurers 
were inclined to like the Scotchman, and if it had 
not been that his presence interfered with their 
plans in opening up the Blondin mine they would 
have been disposed to join forces with him. His 
little boat was named the Ranger and only had six 
horse power. Sinclair acknowledged he had a 
good deal of trouble ascending the river, and that 
at times the current almost swept him back, but he 
had been in no hurry and only drew only eighteen 
inches so he could almost skim over the bars where 
the current was feebler; and as he said he had all 
the time he needed, and wasn’t carrying passengers 
on schedule. They took supper with him that 
evening and Sinclair showed them a package of 
thirty blue and black fox peltries, which he affirmed 
were worth from two to five hundred dollars apiece. 
He had procured them from the Indians on the 
upper river and the whole lot had not cost him ten 
dollars in trade. Floyd, who knew something of 
furs and their values, estimated the lot to be 


26 o Captain Pete in Alaska 

salable for between eight and ten thousand dollars. 
The trapper also had a number of less valuable 
skins, and altogether it was evident he was highly 
satisfied with the outcome of his enterprise. 

Sinclair took a great notion to Floyd. He and 
the rancher were much the same type of man, and 
while the Scotchman liked all of his new friends, 
he was peculiarly attracted to Floyd. Towards the 
end of the evening it happened that Kennedy and 
Pete had gone back to the Grade on some momen- 
tary errand and left the two together. The 
Scotchman looked at Floyd hesitatingly a moment, 
and then said : 

' ‘Floyd, you seem to me like a rare good chap, 
and I am going to tell you a bit of something 
before the others come back. Look-a-here, mon!’’ 

He took a buckskin pouch from the inside of his 
shirt and opened it in his hand. Although it was 
ten o’clock at night there was plenty of light left 
in the heavens for Floyd to see clearly what was 
spread before him in the other’s palm. There 
were seven or eight irregular gold nuggets as large 
as a grape, and half a handful of smaller ones. 

‘T got these from two Indians for a pound of 
tobacco,” whispered the Scotchman. “Do you 
know anything about mining, Floyd?” 

“Not much,” returned the giant rancher, suc- 
cessfully concealing the emotion aroused by the 
sight of the gold. “Do you know where it came 
from?” 


26 i 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

''Oh, I got it from the Indians three or four 
hundred miles above here. They told me it came 
from a creek that had some Indian name like 
Klarndic. I don’t know the least thing about 
mining and the bucks said it was some distance 
away so I did not go there, but it seems to me it 
would be a good chance for anyone who is willing 
to take time and hunt it up.” 

"It’s mighty good of you to tell me this,” said 
Floyd rather shame-facedly, with the knowledge 
of his own great secret of the fortune awaiting 
them at Dessert Spoon Bar in his mind. 

"Oh!” said the Scotchman, "dinna fash yersel! 
The Ranger's cargo will give me all the money I’ll 
ever need. I’m going to turn it into cash at 
Montreal and go back to Bonnie Scotland for the 
rest of my life. So you see, mon, I’ve nae use for 
the gear.” 

"You’re a good fellow all the same!” answered 
the rancher as he shook his hand warmly. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


ANOTHER INTERRUPTION BY TWO TOUGH CUSTOMERS 

A fter a moment’s reflection Floyd concluded 
he had better secure all the particulars Sin- 
clair could give him in regard to this new gold dis- 
covery. They returned to the cabin, and the 
rancher made a memorandum on paper of the 
location of the creek as nearly as the trapper could 
describe it The information was more general 
than in detail, and Sinclair did not even know to 
what tribe the two Indians from whom he had 
bought the gold belonged . However, he described 
the village where they lived, and declared it to be a 
permanent settlement. The names of the Indians 
were Lintoo and Tatshun. On the whole the old 
miner thought it possible he might be able to trace 
up the nuggets to their source, and with the idea of 
having a second string to the Yellowbird Gold Min- 
ing Company’s bow, he made his notes very care- 
fully. 

Shortly Kennedy and Captain Pete came back 
from the Grade and the conversation was turned 
to other topics by Floyd in deference to the Scotch- 
man’s evident intention that the rancher should 
262 


Captain Pete in Alaska 263 

h% the sole possessor of the secret. Sinclair proved 
to be an interesting fellow, and had experienced 
many adventures during his sojourn in this wild 
country that were interesting and instructive to 
our adventurers. In fact, the rencontre — despite 
their disappointment over the delay — proved a 
pleasant break in the monotony of their long trip. 
They had not seen a stranger — with the exception 
of the Esquimaux and hostile Chinamen — since 
their departure from Unalaska, and the sight of 
this new and friendly face was very welcome to 
them. Sinclair's supply of flour and bacon had 
long been exhausted, and his tea and coffee were 
gone as well. In fact about all he had left, except 
tobacco and articles for barter with the Indians, 
of the outfit with which he started from civilization 
was half a bushel of salt. As the Grade was well 
supplied with stores Captain Pete fitted him out so 
that he would fare sumptuously until his arrival at 
St. Michaels, where he intended to make his first 
stop. 

The grateful and generous Scotchman took down 
his bundle of fox skins again, and insisted on pre- 
senting Pete with a magnificent blue fox pelt. 
Pete was delighted for he could already see it 
around Grace's neck. He tried to force Sinclair to 
accept adequate payment, but the trapper insisted 
on making it a free gift. 

One unpleasant piece of news they heard was that 
there were a number of white men in the country. 


264 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Sinclair had met at least a dozen, and he warned 
our friends that some of them were pretty tough 
customers whom it would be just as well to keep 
at a distance. They were mostly half-wild 
trappers in the employ of the large trading com- 
panies. They had imposed on and bullied the 
Indians until the generally peaceful natives had 
been aroused to revengefulness, and on one occa- 
sion he knew of, they had made reprisals by 
ambushing and killing two of the men. 

The Scotchman left them the next morning. 
They remained at anchor until he was out of sight 
before they prepared to start back, and felt glad — 
though rather ashamed- of the sentiment — when 
they saw the last of him. It turned out, however, 
to Kennedy’s immense disgust, that Sinclair was 
not to be the only hindrance intervening between 
the Yellowbird Gold Mining Company and the 
prosecution of its work. Half an hour after he had 
disappeared, when they were about to take in their 
kedge and go back to Dessert Spoon Bar, they 
heard a gun shot in the distance. They stopped 
operations and waited with their glasses fixed on 
the point half a mile above them from whence the 
sound had seemed to come. Before long a large 
oomien containing a man at the bow and one at the 
stern made its appearance, and floated down the 
current towards them. 

The Grade still lay in the cove where she had 
met the Ranger, and Pete with Floyd and Kennedy, 


Captain Pete in Alaska 265 

had gone ashore and were watching the strangers 
approach from the point. They were shortly able 
to discern through their glasses that the new 
comers were white men, and as they came nearer 
their wild aspect and savage appearance was de- 
cidedly unprepossessing. 

‘Well,'' said Floyd. ‘T reckon we won't start 
any gold mining while them chaps are in the 
neighborhood." 

“No," responded Pete, “I shouldn't wonder if 
these turned out to be a couple of the ‘tough cus- 
tomers' that decent Scotchman told us of." 

“By the Ring-tailed Roarer!" exclaimed Ken- 
nedy. “This makes me tired." 

“Perhaps they’ll go past without seeing the 
Grade” observed Pete hopefully. 

“Mebbe," returned Floyd doubtfully, “but we 
ain't very well hid." 

“Anyway," said Kennedy, “let's go on board, Pd 
just as lief have a gun in reach when those fellows 
get close to." 

They pushed off the dingy, and returned to the 
Grade. Dope was already uneasy and faced the 
bow — which headed towards the river — sniffing 
the breeze which came down from the strangers 
inquiringly. His master quieted him, and they 
waited expectantly. In a moment the boat drifted 
into sight a couple of hundreds of yards distant. 
It looked for an instant as if they would get by 
without detecting the converted tug, but at the last 


266 Captain Pete in Alaska 

moment the steersman, who was facing the stern 
of the boat, raised his eyes and saw the Grade and 
the little cluster of men on board of her regarding 
them. He gave a wild whoop and turned the bow 
of the oomien into the cove, while his mate, who 
had also caught on by this time, began to pull hard. 
In a moment they were alongside. 

A nearer view did not dispose our adventurers 
to regard them more favorably. They were sun- 
burnt and bearded, and clothed in buckskin gar- 
ments. This of course emphasized their barbaric 
appearance but in addition their features and 
demeanor were singularly wild and reckless. Each 
had a forty-four revolver in their belts, and two 
repeating rifles lay on a bale of skins in the middle 
of the boat. 

‘'Klahowya tillicum !” ^ the man in the stern 
shouted to Floyd who was gazing down on him 
from above with a face from which cordiality was 
conspicuously absent. ‘‘You don’t look none too 
much pleased to see us.” He shifted his gaze to 
the features of Pete and Kennedy, and failed to find 
any more welcome there. “It seems to me like you 
might smile a little when you meet up with a fellow 
white man in this wilderness,” he concluded in 
some bitterness. 

“That’s accordin’ to what kind of ‘fellow white 
man’ it is,” replied the big rancher, with curious, 
drawling crispness. 


*A Chinook greeting. 


Captain Pete in Alaska 267 

''Oh, well,'' the second stranger began in an oily 
way that failed to commend him to our friends, 
'^ou needn't be hostyle! We're all right, and 
honest trappers working for the Alaska Commer- 
cial Company. We've been up above trading with 
the injuns, and a lot of them got sore on us a 
hundred miles above here, so we thought we'd 
better get out down the river." He looked appre- 
hensively behind him, and added: "I shouldn't 
wonder much if some of them had followed us 
down." 

"What caused your trouble with them?" asked 
Captain Pete. 

"Why," answered the steersman, "my mate here" 
— he indicated the other — "is something of a 
masher, and he made eyes at one of the good-looking 
Klootchmans in the village. The bucks got after 
him mighty sharp, and we came near having to cut 
loose with the winchesters." 

Long Tom and Scotch Jimmy had joined the 
others at the side, and Dope poked his inquiring 
black nose over the rail. It was evident he did not 
approve of the Alaska Commercial representatives 
for he showed his white teeth in a menacing growl 
that caused Pete to seize him hastily by the collar. 
The Grade adventurers looked at each other, and 
it was evident they were of one mind. Joe Floyd 
elected himself as spokesman : 

"Now see here, my friends," he said ingratiat- 
ingly, "from what you tell me and from what I see 


268 Captain Pete in Alaska 

of you I shouldn’t wonder if them injuns had a heap 
of horse sense. I reckon the best thing you kin do 
is to keep on down the river. You will find the 
Alaska Commercial Company still doing business 
at the old stand in Dutch Harbor. Now s’pose you 
mosey along.” 

The two men listened to Floyd’s sardonic speech 
as if thunderstruck. Then the face of the one in 
the stern became convulsed with wrath, and with 
catlike quickness he sprung forward and reached 
for one of the rifles. His companion, however, 
was quicker and more dangerous; his forty-four 
was already out of his belt when Kennedy’s voice 
pierced the air with startling abruptness : 

''Hands up!” 

It was lucky for the two "tough customers” they 
did not disregard the mandate. Pete and Kennedy 
had experience in this sort of warfare, and both of 
them were probably as "quick on the draw” as any 
man in the northwest. Each had his man covered 
before he had time to become dangerous, and there 
was nothing left for the trappers save instant 
acceptance of the situation ; their hands shot in the 
air as if drawn up by some invisible force. Floyd 
had not altered his lounging position and gazed 
down at the foiled ruffians whimsically : 

"Now will you be good?” he drawled. "I 
thought like enough you was bad eggs, but I didn’t 
allow you was goin’ to give yourselves away so 


Captain Pete in Alaska 269 

soon/’ His bantering tone suddenly changed to 
one of stern determination: he said to 

the little Scotchman, ^‘jump down into that boat. 
Keep your hands up !” he warned the men savagely. 
‘^Just pass up those two side arms, Jimmy, and take 
the cartridges out of the rifles.” 

Jimmy executed the rancher’s orders silently, 
and in a workmanlike manner. ''Got any more 
ammunition ?” Joe inquired of the Oily One. 

"Not a cartridge!” answered the man in the stern 
in a voice that showed his nerve had given out. 
"For the love of Moses don’t set us adrift without 
a shot in the locker. We have not even got any 
meat, and we’d starve before we got to the mouth 
of the river.” 

"Tom,” said Pete quietly, "get out a side of 
bacon and a sack of flour, and toss them into the 
boat.” 

As Long Tom executed this order Floyd nodded 
gravely: "Just the thing,” he remarked. "Now 
Jimmy, hand up them rifles. They’d only be in the 
way, boys, if you haven’t got no more cartridges,” 
he assured the chapfallen couple consolingly. 

They gazed at each other in consternation as 
Jimmy passed the Winchesters to Floyd. From 
their disappointment it was apparent they still had 
ammunition with which they could have replaced 
the shells taken from the magazines. 

"Now,” commanded the rancher, "dig out of 


270 Captain Pete in Alaska 

here, and don’t you stop before nightfall. If we 
catch you around here again we’ll sure shoot you up 
some. Git out !” 

They had gotten up steam when Sinclair, the 
Scotchman, took his departure, and Captain Pete 
suggested that it might be wise if they should 
follow the trappers down the river at half speed, 
so as to be certain they did not remain in the 
vicinity. Both the rancher and the ex-revenue 
man highly approved of this idea, and they hauled 
the kedge aboard. When the Grade came out into 
the broad stream the Alaska Commercial men were 
drifting past the rounded point of Dessert Spoon 
Bar. They had ceased paddling, and were holding 
a consultation. Kennedy — whose mind was full of 
the Blondin placer mine — feared on the instant they 
were planning to dis-embark at the very spot where 
he himself was so anxious to arrive. In nervous 
haste he seized the whistle cord, and blew a long 
shrill blast. The men in the boat — they could be 
plainly seen through the glasses — started apart, 
and looked nervously behind at their pursuers. 
Then they grasped their paddles anew evidently 
interpreting the signal as an admonition to hurry 
up. 

Our adventurers kept the oomien in sight for a 
couple of hours during which time its occupants 
worked with praiseworthy diligence; then with a 
parting screech of the siren they bade them adieu. 


271 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

and turned back. As they slowly made their way 
up the river again Pete was thoughtful, and he 
finally said : 

''Do you know I believe it will be better if we do 
not take the Grade into the harbor by the bar! 
We want by all means to avoid attracting atten- 
tion to it, and what has already occurred shows we 
are liable to be discovered at any moment if we 
come to an anchor right in front of the place where 
the gold is. Suppose the Scotchman had not 
answered our signal yesterday? If we had not 
heard him, and hadn’t known he was coming we 
should have stopped, and not only Sinclair, but 
after him those two rascals, might have actually 
caught us on the placer mine.” 

"By the Sacred Crocodile of the Nile!” exclaimed 
Kennedy. "You are dead right, Pete. But some- 
how it appears to me as if we’d never get to that 
gold! However, we’d certainly better bring to at 
least a mile away from the Dessert Spoon Bar, and 
maybe it would be safer to be on the opposite side 
of the river. I don’t want to take any chances.” 

"Cap’n Pete is sure sensible,” agreed the rancher. 
"It would never do for the Grade to lay there fur 
anybody ter see. There’s no knowing when some 
more of them wild white men might heave in sight, 
an’ ef thar’s as much gold thar as Blondin allowed 
it would set them crazy, and we’d have to fight to 
hold our own. But I reckon we kin lay right in 


272 Captain Pete in Alaska 

that little cove where we stayed last night. It’s 
out of the way, an’ easy ter git ter the bar from 
than” 

This was the plan they finally agreed on. They 
gazed longingly at the slendor sand-spit and back 
to the snow-covered summit of Ill-rit, or Twin- 
Peak mountain, as they fought their way once more 
against the current to the cove. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS A PAN — THE TYEE AND 
DEER MEET IN SITKA 

'^HE three principals gathered in the bow of the 
Grade for a final word before going to the mine. 
Kennedy was slightly pale, and they stared at each 
other with a new seriousness of manner. 

Pete broke the silence. In spite of his youth he 
was the leading spirit of the three. 

‘What next?’' he quietly asked. 

The tension of the day had been too much for 
Captain Kennedy. His eyes gloated over the pros- 
pect in front, and his frame was rigid with anticipa- 
tion. When he spoke there was a quaver in his 
voice : 

“Let’s — dig the gold!” 

Pete glanced keenly at the excited man, and Floyd 
quietly put his hand on the other’s shoulder as he 
said: 

“Take it easy, old man! You’re all het up with 
this thing, and have got a genuine case of gold 
fever. We’re first on the ground. Take it easy.” 

“I think Joe’s right!” remarked Pete. “Now 
we’re on the spot, and it seems to be just as the 

273 


274 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Frenchman left it, there’s no reason for hurry or 
confusion.” 

The rancher nodded, and said : 

‘Them’s my sentiments.” 

“By the Dove that left the Ark !” exclaimed Ken- 
nedy. “You two fellows are good philosophers. I 
suppose it’s all right as you say, but somehow I 
can’t hold myself in to-night.” 

“Of course,” began Pete, “the first thing to do is 
to find out if gold is here, and how easy it will be to 
get it. If the fact is established, we may as well 
go about it in a business-like way.” 

“You are talking hard sense, boss,” said Joe 
Floyd. “If we pan out gold here in big quantities, 
we’ve got to go about it in the right way.” 

“Yes, of course,” agreed Kennedy. “But can’t 
we do something right away?” 

“Certainly we can,” replied Pete. “Here’s 
Jimmy to tell us that dinner is ready. We’ll eat 
that ‘right away,’ and then we’ll go ashore with the 
tools, and our gold miner here” — looking at Floyd 
— “will do some prospecting.” 

“All right,” consented the revenue man. “But I 
confess I ain’t as sharp-set as usual.” 

An hour later they left the Grade for the placer. 
The miner had evidently sized up the situation. 
With a pick and shovel over his shoulder, and a 
gold pan hanging at his belt he led the way up the 
ravine as decidedly as if he knew just where to make 
the first strike. There was a little bend in the 


275 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

stream a few hundred yards from the river where 
the brawling current foamed over a bed of gravel. 
The ravine, or rather valley, through which the 
creek ran down was a quarter of a mile wide. Floyd 
paused as his glance took in his surroundings: 

^^Here’s where this creek used to run a hundred 
years ago or so,'’ he said. ‘‘And I reckon if there’s 
any gold come down from the matrix up above, it’s 
likely had some trouble to get by this point. Jest 
you fellows wait a moment.” 

He dropped his indifference, and fell to shovelling 
into the bank like a madman. He threw away the 
loose gravel and sand to a depth of three or four 
feet with the intensity of a buzz-saw. Then his 
energetic shovel suddenly became a carefully-con- 
trolled tool as he probed, and scraped with anxious 
deftness. 

“By the Great Horn Spoon !” he exclaimed after 
a moment. “I’ve reached the pay-streak. There 
ain’t no gold ever got below this lining of clay.” 

He had cleared out a square pit into which the 
others gazed intently. It would not have surprised 
them if they had seen the glint of gold at the bot- 
tom. Joe took out shovelful after shovelful of the 
clay, and carefully put it in a neat heap behind him. 
It was in a stratum about four inches thick, and he 
removed with it a light crust of the top soil. In a 
moment he had all of the layer he had uncovered. 
There was possibly a bushel of the clay. He leaned 
on the handle of the shovel, and looked at the 


276 Captain Pete in Alaska 

others. They noted a blotch of dull red on his 
cheek bone: 

“This will tell the tale He whispered. 

He filled the gold pan with the clay, and Pete and 
Kennedy followed him to the nearest pool. He 
knelt before it, and submerged the pan. Then he 
lifted it dripping full, and began to puddle the clay, 
holding it in his left and working with the fingers 
of his right hand. Occasionally he gave it a dex- 
terous flirt with his wrist to cast away the overflow 
and then refilled it. In this way the contents of the 
pan were soon reduced to half the original amount. 
They watched him with bated breath, and Pete saw 
Kennedy’s knuckles grow white as he clenched his 
fists convulsively. 

Suddenly Floyd, put the pan on the sand, and 
leaped to his feet with something in his hand. He 
rinsed it through the water with a fierce gesture, 
and held it before the others’ eyes. 

It was an irregular lump of shining yellow gold, 
as large as a walnut ! 

“Hooroar !” he shouted. 

“Hurrah !” echoed Pete. 

“Hoo — ” cried Kennedy, as he fell senseless on 
his face. 

The long strain, and the sudden fulfillment of his 
most brilliant expectations had been too much for 
the revenue man. Pete dashed a cupful of water 
sharply in his face, and he came to his senses with 
comical suddenness. He sat up, and questioned 



It was an irregular lump of shining yellow gold 



Captain Pete in Alaska 277 

them with his eyes. Floyd passed him the nugget, 
and said solemnly: 

'‘Sure’s you’re born ! We’re all rich men ! That 
nugget — ” he took it again, and hefted it with prac- 
tised hand — "is worthy fifty dollars this minute, and 
such lumps don’t grow alone. There’s more where 
that comes from.” 

The rancher had regained his balance. He 
handed the precious lump carelessly to Captain 
Pete, and turned back to his gold pan. The lad 
assisted his friend to his feet, and they came over to 
see him work. The smooth facility with which the 
old miner performed his task delighted them. Dip ! 
— he filled the pan. A dexterous motion of his 
trained wrist sent the water circling around the clay 
in the bottom. Swish! he flirted off the superflu- 
ous muddy fluid. A few moments of this expert 
process, and he became careful as the water grew 
clearer in the receptacle. He poured it off with 
cautious painstaking, drop by drop, and arose. 

Their heads touched as they peered into the pan. 

"Hoorah again !” 

On the circle of the inner edge were scattered half 
a dozen nuggets the size of a hazel nut, and a string 
of scale-gold. 

"Jumping Jehosophat ! Did anyone ever see the 
like! It’ll run three hundred dollars to the pan! 
If this ain’t a pocket it’s the biggest gold strike the 
world ever saw. In a week a man could fill a five- 
gallon kerosene tin on this pay-streak.” 


278 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

Floyd washed out all the clay he had dug. When 
they returned to the Grade , there was a handful — 
worth more than a thousand dollars — of the virgin 
metal in the buckskin ‘'poke'’ he had produced from 
one of his pockets to hold the treasure. 

Up to this time the hired members of the expedi- 
tion had known nothing of the purpose of their lead- 
ers. The dazzling success of the treasure hunt 
now made it necessary to arrange matters on a new 
basis. 

“Floyd/’ said Pete, thoughtfully. “I suppose you 
understand all about mining law, and the making 
of locations ?” 

The rancher nodded silently. 

“Then we'd better get at this thing systematic- 
ally," continued Pete. “Suppose we each take up a 
claim individually, and work all three together for 
the benefit of the ‘Yellowbird Gold Mining Com- 
pany.' " 

“What about Tom Long and Jimmy?" inquired 
Kennedy. 

“And Ah Fat and Ib-won?" added the rancher. 

“Yes, they all have rights to be considered," con- 
ceded Pete. 

“There's enough for all of us twice over," affirmed 
Joe Floyd. 

“Anyhow," ruminated Kennedy, “they're all 
salary men, and hired by us — except the coolie." 

“W e'd better mark out our own claims before we 
tell it them," advised Floyd. “I reckon we've got 


Captain Pete in Alaska 279 

about the pick of the gulch here. Then they can 
take up their claims wherever they want.^^ 

''Yes, that's fair," agreed the others. 

Before they slept they marked out the claims that 
were to be worked in the interest of the "Yellowbird 
Gold Mining Company." Then they called Long 
and Jimmy, and the aliens to a council of the whole. 
Pete made a speech in which he explained the dis- 
covery of the placer ground, and how he and Ken- 
nedy had come to have knowledge of its existence. 
He informed them they were at liberty to take up 
claims for themselves and work them on their own 
account. It was apparent Long and the Scotch- 
man were not so excited over the matter as their 
masters had been. Ah Fat kept his sentiments to 
himself, but looked exceedingly intelligent. Ib- 
won laughed, and said: 

"No want ig-o-ret ! Bad man kill when got." 

After a moment's consultation with Long, Jimmy 
the little Scotchman made his employers a proposi- 
tion. 

"We feel, sirs, that this gold lay-out is mair yours 
than oors. Ye fand it, and we hae nae richt tae 
it. Long and me think ye micht put us twain on a 
percentage, and let it go at that." 

"The very thing!" agreed Pete. "Floyd, locate 
a claim for Long and one for Jimmy. We'll turn 
them in with ours to the 'Yellowbird Gold Mining 
Company.' Kennedy and I as original discoverers 
and the investors of the capital, will each draw 


28 o Captain Pete in Alaska 

down forty per cent, of the profits. You Joe, as 
mining superintendent will get ten per cent., and a 
salary, and Jimmy and Long five a piece.’' 

''It will make us all rich, and you and Kennedy 
millionaires,” announced Floyd. 

When the Tyee arrived in Sitka, the roses had 
again begun to bloom in Grace Hogan’s cheeks. 
The sea air, the beautiful scenery, and the kindness 
and consideration of all on board, from the grizzled 
captain to rollicking young Murph, the deck hand, 
made her feel again that life was worth living. Be- 
sides she was on her way to meet Pete, and that 
alone was enough to make her heart sing. She was 
preparing for a visit ashore, when Tom Fisher 
called out to her from the deck. 

"Come up here. Grade, there is a beautiful little 
steamer coming in the harbor, and Captain Graig- 
nic says it is the revenue cutter Deer, that Pete 
wrote you he met in Unalaska.” 

She trilled happily in her girlish treble as she an- 
swered, and came up the companionway with a 
brisk rush which denoted her renewed health and 
spirits. 

The stranger came to the dock, and in a moment 
Captain Senkil stepped ashore. The fisherman had 
read Pete’s letter mentioning the meeting of the 
Deer so he had no hesitation in accosting the cap- 
tain. The latter as we know was not a stickler for 
etiquette. He met the skipper of the Tyee cordi- 


28 i 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

ally, and as soon as he understood he was Captain 
Pete’s father and that the Tyee had Grace Hogan, 
his old friend’s daughter, and Pete’s Hand on board, 
he was all affability. His official station, however, 
had made him a politic man. He recalled how he 
had to corkscrew the Graders secret out of Cap- 
tain Pete, and wondered how much this party knew 
of his true mission up the Yukon River. When he 
heard of the unexpected fortune to which the lad 
had fallen heir, and the importance of his immediate 
return to Cortesana he was disposed to give all the 
aid he could. 

‘Where was Captain Pete bound?” he asked as 
if casually, but with a sharp, inquiring glance at 
the father’s face. 

The Frenchman was alert, and caught the look. 
It puzzled him, for he had no key to Senkil’s knowl- 
edge. The naval officer was thinking that perhaps 
it was best to tell this shrewd and resolute-looking 
old man the whole situation between Captain Pete 
and Lee Sing, and to let him be the judge of its 
importance. On his part the fisherman was won- 
dering whether circumstances could have arisen 
which had induced his son to confide to Senkil that 
he was gold hunting on the Yukon. He answered: 

‘T know where Pete was going. Captain Senkil, 
and what his errand was, but I am not at liberty to 
tell.” 

This answer determined Captain Senkil’s course : 

“I must have a private talk with you, Captain 


282 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Graignic/' he said. “And it had better come off 
before I meet Miss Hogan. It may not be advi»- 
able to tell her all you and I know.’’ 

“She knows he is on ze Yukon/’ answered the 
fisherman. 

“Come to my cabin with me, Captain Graignic,” 
said the naval officer. 

The fisherman was aware Chinamen were sus- 
pected of causing Blondin’s death, and even that cir- 
cumstances had led Kennedy to believe Lee Sing 
was responsible for, if not actually culpable in the 
assassination. The news that the Victoria tea 
merchant had formerly been a pirate in the South- 
ern hemisphere, and taken up his trade again in the 
northern seas, fairly took him aback. When he 
heard of the arrest of the Dragon* s Fang-trs by 
Senkil, and their subsequent escape from the cal- 
aboose in Unalaska, his face became grave and anx- 
ious. As Senkil proceeded with his tale, and re- 
lated how the day after the Grade had disappeared 
in the ice pack, the Dragon*s Fang had followed 
among the floes, he fell silent and thoughtful. 

“What do you zink about it?” he asked the officer. 
“You are acquainted wiz conditions in zese seas. 
Is it probable the boats have met?” 

“Perhaps not probable,” returned Senkil slowly. 
“But perfectly possible. Both were helpless in the 
ice pack, of course. But if they got out of it about 
the same time they would head for the same point, 
the delta of the Yukon River.” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 283 

‘‘I am afraid zere has been trouble/’ said the 
Frenchman. ‘Tete and Kennedy will no doubt 
take care of zemselves, and zey have Joe Floyd wiz 
zem, but Chinamen are an unknown quantity. It 
worries me/’ 


CHAPTER XXV 


THE GOLD HUNTERS RETURN — TWO BEASTS OF PREY 

^ ^ T F I didn't have a lady passenger, Fd go pirate- 

* hunting !" 

Captain Graignic made this remark in a re- 
signed yet wistful way that caused the naval officer 
to smile in sympathy. 

'Tt is a pity," he conceded. 

‘Tn any case I zink I had better get to ze scene of 
operations as soon as possible." 

‘Terhaps you'd better," Captain Senkil agreed. 

Gracie's plans for exploring the objects of inter- 
est around picturesque Sitka were nipped in the bud. 
The fisherman announced that, learning from the 
commander of the revenue cutter that the Bering 
Sea was probably clear of ice, he would not lose a 
moment in the pursuit of his son. 

Grace and Tom both observed how the fisherman 
hurried them off, and although his conduct had not 
been hitherto marked by lack of energy, there 
seemed an added strenuousness in the vigor with 
which he pressed forward. Neither suspected — 
and Captain Graignic did not tell them — the possi- 
ble complications added to his task by the informa- 
* 284 


Captain Pete in Alaska 285 

tion received from Senkil. He had plenty of coal 
to carry him to Unalaska, and calculated on taking 
as much aboard there as the ample bunkers of the 
Tyee would hold. 

The reader will please imagine the details of the 
voyage of the Tyee from Sitka through Unimak 
Straits, after stopping to coal, to the mouth of the 
Yukon River. They encountered no ice, had no ac- 
cidents, and late in July Captain Graignic picked up 
an Esquimau pilot, and entered the northern 
mouth of the river. As they came through the delta 
he gave one command to Tom Fisher which puzzled 
the latter, although he had learned to obey the ex- 
fisherman’s orders without asking questions. 

‘Tom,” said the Captain, “keep a sharp lookout 
wiz your glasses as we go along. Let me know if 
you see a sealing schooner or any Chinamen. 

Under Mining Superintendent Joe Floyd’s direc- 
tions, the operations of the “Yellowbird Gold Min- 
ing Company” were prosecuted vigorously. They 
had brought along rough lumber from Cortesana in 
the hold of the Grade. Floyd set the idlers to un- 
covering the pay-streak on the lines he indicated, 
while he himself constructed and erected sluice 
boxes at a place where he contrived to utilize a wa- 
terfall with which to wash out his gold instead of 
working by the tedious pan process. 

The riches of the placer ground astounded even 
Floyd. It set the rest crazy with the mad en- 


286 Captain Pete in Alaska 

thusiasm that seems to accompany the discovery of 
Nature's golden hoards. 

Every night found them thousands of dollars 
richer than they had been in the morning. The 
four inch stratum of clay on the little point Joe had 
selected for his first prospect, turned out over a hun- 
dred thousand dollars in bullion. As they continued 
their operations further up the creek, their efforts 
continued to be successful, although the metal v^as 
not so plentiful as at first, and ran chiefly in scale 
gold and dust instead of nuggets. 

At the end of ten days from the evening they had 
anchored alongside of Dessert Spoon Bar, the three 
adventurers sat in the cabin before Pete's open chest. 
It 'was half full of virgin gold ! 

“What do you suppose all that’s worth?” asked 
Kennedy with awe. 

Pete shook his head as an indication of ignorance. 

“I reckon I kin give a guess that will come within 
twenty or thirty thousand dollars,” said the Mining 
Superintendent. 

Pete laughed, and the ex-revenue officer gasped : 

“That’s close enough.” 

“This here gold,” said Floyd, “is worth say two 
hundred dollars a pound. I’ve kept a pretty close 
run of the heft of it as we brought it in day by day. 
There’s nigh onto a ton and half in that chist. How 
much would that make?” he inquired of Pete. 

“Six hundred thousand dollars,” he replied. 

“By the Tail of the Extinct Mastodon!” 


Captain Pete in Alaska 287 

It was the biggest oath Kennedy could think of, 
and seemed to fit the occasion. 

'‘That means,'' said Pete, figuring a moment on 
a piece of paper. "Two hundred and forty thou- 
sand dollars for you, Kennedy." 

‘'By — " Kennedy weakly trailed off into silence 
as Pete continued : 

— "the same for me. Sixty thousand for you, 
Joe — " 

"That's good!" the Superintendent grinned. 

— "thirty thousand for Tom Long and thirty for 
Jimmy. It's a pretty satisfactory ten days’ work," 
he concluded. 

"You're mighty right," agreed Kennedy. "This 
is a good way of making money. I haven’t cut any 
man's wage down to pile up that two hundred and 
forty thousand, nor played anybody a sharp trick, 
or taken the bread out of the mouths of widows or 
orphans." 

"I hadn’t looked at it in that way," said Pete. 
"But by Jove, you’re right 1 Mining is square busi- 
ness the way we’ve done it." 

"You'll find every old miner holds them senti- 
ments," the Mining Superintendent said ear- 
nestly. "That’s one of the reasons we all like the 
game." 

"Well," broke in Kennedy. "I reckon I've got 
enough money with this here to last me the rest of 
my life. I don't see how I can spend more than two 
thousand dollars a year, so that pile would stretch 


288 Captain Pete in Alaska 

over a hundred and twenty years. I believe Pll 
quit.’’ 

This was said with perfect earnestness. Pete 
smiled amusedly, although the simplicity of the 
speech made him love and admire his friend more 
than ever. 

‘T’m afraid that’ll hardly do, Cap,” he answered. 
^'When a man gets as rich as you are he’s got to 
keep on getting richer. The 'Yellowbird Gold Min- 
ing Company’ owns these five claims, and we’ve 
either got to go on working them as long as there is 
any gold, or sell them to somebody else for cash.” 

'‘How much do you suppose they’d bring?” asked 
Kennedy resignedly, with an evident intention of 
getting rid of his share to the first comer. 

"Ten to twenty million,” smiled Pete. 

Kennedy’s arms went above his head. 

"Suffering Moses!” he cried. "We’ll have to 
put them up to Rockefeller.” 

"I suppose,” said Pete, a few moments later, 
"that we ought as sound business men, to get these 
claims on file. Where must we go, Joe?” 

"Sitka, or Juneau would be nearest, I reckon.” 

"Let’s do it!” unexpectedly suggested Kennedy. 
"And then go on ‘out.’ I want to get action on 
some of my money.” 

The idea struck Pete with favor. He foresaw 
possible trouble ahead if their claims were not 
promptly legalized, and it was apparent that the 
future management of the mine could be conducted 


Captain Pete in Alaska 289 

so it would not be necessary for him to oversee, or 
take part in the process. Then to tell the truth, 
something seemed to be drawing him toward Puget 
Sound. If he had known his father and Tom 
Fisher, and above all Grace were on the new Tyee 
in the Bering Sea at that very moment, a pair of 
mules could not have held him back from starting 
down the river. 

Floyd took a different view of things. This was 
natural and perhaps produced by the ratio between 
sixty, and two hundred and forty thousand dollars. 
He was not ready to stop making money when the 
opportunities were so favorable. His inclination 
however, chimed in well with Pete’s plans. It was 
finally arranged that Floyd should remain at the 
mine on a salary, and work it so far as he was able 
with the assistance of Ib-won. Ah Fat had taken 
a claim further up the creek than the property 
possessed by our adventurers, and was mining on 
his own account. He was succeeding very well al- 
though his ground was not as rich as the first dis- 
covery. He expected to take out all he wanted dur- 
ing the season, and go back that winter, and spend 
the balance of his life in China. 

Two days after the Grade started down the river 
en route for Sitka. 

The little harbor in which the Grade had taken 
refuge the night Lee Sing’s party had been so sig- 
nally defeated through the vigilance of the mastiff 


290 Captain Pete in Alaska 

was known to the natives who occasionally earned 
an honest dollar by piloting river steamers through 
the first stages of their journey. The man whom 
the fisherman had engaged found himself con- 
fronted by an obstinate head wind in the vicinity, 
and naturally made for the place. The Tyee was 
luckier — or perhaps the gale was less strong — and 
she had no difficulty in coming to an anchor in al- 
most the identical berth where her predecessor had 
lain a month before. There was no other course 
open than to remain quietly until the head wind 
abated, or hauled around so they could continue 
their journey. Mr. Graignic could see no alterna- 
tive, and advised the engineer, Hanlon, and deck 
hands Tom Fisher and Murph, to turn in and get all 
the sleep they could : 

“For,’’ he said, “I’m going to run zis packet night 
and day as soon as I get out of zese contrary winds 
until I meet up wiz Captain Pete !” 

They took him at his word, which they had found 
was a sensible thing to do, and retired to their 
berths. Gracie soon followed, and the old man was 
left alone on deck. Although ten o’clock in the 
evening it was broad daylight, and the sun was 
shining. He stood by the rail looking idly into the 
water. The turbidness of the spring freshets had 
passed, and the haven was limpid as a mountain 
spring. Pete’s father had not allowed his state of 
mind to become apparent to the rest, but he was 
much worried over the possibilities of what might 


Captain Pete in Alaska 291 

have happened in case Lee Sing had overtaken the 
Grade, 

“If Pete had only known the pirates were on his 
track he muttered. 

At this moment his wandering eye caught the 
glint of some white object on the yellow sand that 
lay at the bottom of the water. He idly traced its 
outlines, and then with quick interest, concentrated 
his keen vision upon the object. Yes, there were 
the legs and arms — and the skull ! It was a human 
skeleton, without the shadow of a doubt. 

Like a flash the fisherman connected this new dis- 
covery with the subject of his previous meditations. 
Had it anything to do with Pete? The Frenchman 
had imagination — it was one of the qualities he had 
transmitted to his son — and in a moment his fancy 
built up a possible attack on the Grade at this very 
spot by the Chinese pirates. Why not? His son's 
steamer might as readily been driven into this haven 
by the force of the elements as the Tyee. Unaware 
that the pirates were on his trail, his ship's com- 
pany would have sought repose — as his own had 
done. And the oriental miscreants had stolen on 
them, and put them to death, afterwards using the 
little steamer they had captured in which to hunt 
the source of Blondin's treasure. 

This vision rose plainly before Mr. Graignic’s 
eyes as if painted on the surface of the water above 
that gruesome skeleton. Then his hard common 
sense asserted itself. He told himself he was 


292 Captain Pete in Alaska 

dreaming, and that there was not a chance in ten 
million that the bones beneath the water had any- 
thing to do with Captain Pete, or the crew of the 
Grade. Nevertheless he determined he would 
watch while the others were sleeping. 

The harbor in which the fisherman was doing 
sentry duty on the Tyee was on the south side of the 
rocky headland with a sand-bar extending from its 
point toward the delta. On the north side two 
great slabs of basaltic rock had fallen together so 
their points touched, forming a gloomy cavern 
which might on occasion, serve to shelter a wild 
beast from the fury of a driving storm. In the nar- 
row opening between the leaning columns a few 
half burnt brands of drift wood smouldered, and the 
vacant space behind sheltered the recumbent form 
of Wong. He was just awaking from his slumber, 
and as he raised himself on his arm, hasty footsteps 
made him hasten his movements. The new comer 
was Captain Lee Sing. As he reached the en- 
trance he dashed the burning chunks apart with his 
foot, and carefully beat out the blaze. 

Wong gazed at him in stolid silence, and waited 
for him to give his reasons for the action. The two 
men were altered for the worse since we saw them 
last. Only the remnants of their tattered garments 
clung to their half-naked bodies, and their faces 
were swollen, and disfigured by the merciless at- 
tacks of the gnats and mosquitoes. Under the cir- 


293 


Captain Pete in Alaska 

cumstances in which they maintained existence they 
had returned to a state of nature. They had been 
compelled by the exigencies of their fate to live like 
the denizens of the forest, and become beasts of 
prey. Their cavern was a fitting habitation for 
them. But they had retained some of the attri- 
butes of humanity, and were more dangerous to 
their kind than their brethren of the woodland. 

‘'Our chance has come at last,’’ said Lee Sing to 
his mate — of course in the Chinese tongue of which 
I cannot attempt to reproduce the idiom. “A 
steamer lies at anchor on the other side of the point. 
I watched her come in. The crew have gone be- 
low, and there is but one man, half asleep, on the 
deck. We will kill them all, and take the boat.” 

It showed the mettle of the men, and the straits 
to which they were reduced when the other wel- 
comed the news — and the plan — with alacrity. 
There was no question of soliciting aid in their dire 
extremity. It was at once the ruthless law of the 
wild beast and the pirate. 

Kill, and take red-handed ! 

“Wait,” growled Wong as his Captain turned to 
lead the way. He crawled into the cavern, and 
promptly backed out again, holding something in his 
hand which resembled an oblong strip of stout 
leather with a piece of marline tied to each extrem- 
ity. 

“Oh, your sling. Right! We may need it!” 
said the chief. 


294 Captain Pete in Alaska 

Wong went to the water’s edge and selected with 
care half a dozen rounded pebbles the size of an 
egg. 

‘'Good for the man on deck, perhaps,” he said in 
his hoarse voice as he stowed the deadly missiles 
about his person. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


AND THE LAST — WONG^S END AND THE LOVERS’ 
MEETING 

/^^RACE could not sleep. This eternal day pre- 
vailing through the twenty-four hours, al- 
though novel and diverting as a travel experience, 
interfered with the habits she had acquired at home 
where Day and Night were more evenly, and sensi- 
bly divided. She drew the shade across the port- 
hole of her cabin, and again composed herself to 
slumber. That ''nasty'' midnight sun seemed to 
concentrate its rays on her curtain, and shine right 
through. Then her foot suddenly itched con- 
sumedly, and she had not finished scratching when 
the irritation attacked her right arm. She viciously 
dug at it with the fingers of her left hand. Then 
the roots of her hair began to twitch, and she sud- 
denly sat up in her bunk. 

The truth was the arrival of the Tyee on the 
Yukon had stimulated her imagination, and set her 
mind working until sleep was as impossible to her 
as it was to Mr. Graignic on the deck above. Her 
thoughts wandered to Captain Pete, and she specu- 
lated as to his whereabouts and circumstances. 
How far was he ahead of them up the river? Had 

295 


296 Captain Pete in Alaska 

he found the gold of which he was in search? If 
he had, and lots of it, it would be rather nice — 
though, she reflected, she would love dear old Pete 
just as much if he had remained a fisherman and 
rancher all his life on Waldron Island. As a mat- 
ter of fact it would be rather nice to be the wife of a 
handsome young fisherman, and live with him on an 
island away from everybody, with no social duties, 
and — 

She shrugged her shoulders resignedly, and 
arose : 

‘1 guess you can’t sleep,” she said, making a 
charming, whimsical face at herself as she glanced 
into the little mirror above the washstand. ‘'You 
had better take a walk along the beach !” 

She bathed her hot face, dressed, and went on 
deck. 

“What’s ze matter, Gracie? Can’t you sleep?” 
inquired the fisherman. 

“I don’t believe I was ever so wide-awake in my 
life !” she answered with small, feminine irritation. 

“Neizer was I!” acknowledged he. “Zere must 
be something disturbing in ze atmosphere” — A 
stentorian snore came through the window of the 
deck cabin which the crew occupied in common — 
“zough it only seems to affect you and me.” 

“Let’s take a walk along the shore,” she sug- 
gested. 

Some indefinable impulse made the fisherman in- 
clined to object to the proposition, but he looked at 


Captain Pete in Alaska 297 

the strip of yellow shingle leading to the point of 
the bare headland, and across to the silent line of 
forest a couple of hundreds of feet distant on the 
river bank, and it seemed silly to him to combat the 
girks evident desire : 

‘'Come along,’’ he said, as he pulled the boat up 
to the side. 

The Grade was booming down the great river. 
Now that Pete was started, he could not hurry for- 
ward rapidly enough — to Grace, his heart kept say- 
ing. Considering the only knowledge he had of 
the perils of the Yukon were what he had gained in 
the trip up under the pilotage of Ib-won, he cer- 
tainly made a remarkable passage. He remained on 
deck most of the time, and when he came to a place 
where he feared difficulty, he often took the wheel 
himself, and steered her through the rocks and cur- 
rents. 

Six days of this strenuous work brought the 
steamer nearly to the opening of the delta. They 
passed the Indian village where they had made their 
first stop after leaving Dead Man’s Bay, as he and 
Kennedy had come to call the scene of Wong’s cap- 
ture. At the heel of the day they sighted the rocky 
headland that has so often been mentioned in these 
pages. It was a broad, clear stretch of river, and 
Pete on a momentary impulse motioned Long Tom 
to give the craft a sheer toward the point. He 
wanted to view again the little haven where instead 


298 Captain Pete in Alaska 

of the sought-for safety, they had encountered the 
attack of the pirate crew. Without knowing why 
he did so Pete suddenly shut off the steam, and the 
Grade silently glided down the stream fifty yards 
from the shore. 

Kennedy had taken his rifle and cartridge belt 
from the rack, and was swearing at his cleaning rod 
as he swabibed his gun because the ring at the end 
was gone, and he had nothing to hold onto as he 
alternately viciously shoved it down the barrel, and 
pulled it back again. He sauntered toward the 
bow, taking them with him, to speak to Pete. Dope 
raised his ponderous form from where he had been 
lying, and followed yawning. When he reached 
his master who was standing at the rail, he stood on 
his hind feet, and planted his paws on the bulwark 
as he had done that night when he looked down into 
the dory. 

The Grade was now sliding rapidly past the head- 
land, and was opening the sand-bar, although it 
was not yet fully uncovered to the sight of the two 
men on the bow of the steamer. The mastiff hardly 
raised his head above the level of the rail when his 
black upper lip drew back to his nostrils showing 
a line of white teeth, and he uttered a threatening 
growl. The same second two men emerged from 
a copse of alder that grew on the spot where the 
rocky headland joined the sand-spit. Their backs 
were to the steamer, and our friends did not recog- 
nize the uncouth, tattered savages as their old ac- 


Captain Pete in Alaska 299 

quaintances Lee Sing and Wong. Dope’s nose 
was more reliable. He smelt his enemies, but true 
to his training only showed the knowledge by the 
vicious snarl that his master interpreted rightly to 
mean imminent danger from the strangers. 

In the second which it took this to happen the 
Grade was gliding down the river with the tide, 
and every heart-beat opened up more of the sand- 
spit to the gaze. Twenty feet further, and Pete, 
to his inexpressible amazement saw his father and 
the form of Grace Hogan glide into view like a 
picture on the shifting slide of a dark lantern. He 
stood transfixed with surprise, unable to utter a 
sound or move a limb. Wong, unknowing of the 
observers at his back, chose this moment to carry 
out the plan he and his ingenious chief had evolved. 
The fisherman and Grace sauntered along a hun- 
dred feet away, engrossed in their subject — they 
were discussing Pete — with their eyes on the sand 
at their feet. 

The pirate moved forward a pace, put one of the 
stones in the bed of the sling, and started to twirl 
it around his head preparatory to sending it on its 
mission. Kennedy, the Stevens ‘‘broken” in his 
hands, and the metal cleaning rod projecting from 
the muzzle, stared at the tableau. Pete’s eyes 
caught Wong’s action as he raised his hand : 

“Murder!” he shouted, taking the deadly inten- 
tion of the gesture at a glance. “The SLING!” 

A bolt of lightning could not have been more 


300 


Captain Pete in Alaska 


prompt and effective than the ex-revenue officer’s 
action. He seemed to spring the barrel on to the 
stock and flash a cartridge into the chamber with 
one smooth movement, and as Wong gave a 
startled side glance at Pete’s shout, he levelled the 
rifle and pulled the trigger. 

They heard a metallic ring in the bellow of the 
discharge. Wong gave a slight start, and fell 
forward on his face. Just beyond his body the 
steel rod, point down, quivered in the sand. At 
the report of the gun Lee Sing drew back in the 
alder tangle, and could not be found subsequently. 

The effect of the rifle shot was almost as marked 
on Grace and the fisherman as it was on the China- 
men, although in a less deadly way. When the 
girl raised her eyes she saw her lover standing on 
the bow of the approaching steamer with his arms 
outstretched to her. He seemed about to take a 
header into the intervening water to swim to her. 
Mr. Graignic saw the stricken pirate as he tumbled 
in a heap, and ran quickly to him before Grace 
could tear her eyes from the face of her lover. 

Kennedy again displayed his practical mind, and 
quick-thoughtedness in emergency. He said a 
word to Tom Long, and together they got the kedge 
over the bow. It struck good holding ground in 
the mud, and the Grade described a half circle, and 
brought up with her head to the rush of the cur- 
rent. In a second the skiff was lowered, and Ken- 
nedy pulled ashore, while Pete danced up and down 


Captain Pete in Alaska 301 

in the bow, and acted like a maniac trying to upset 
the boat. But the next moment Grace was in his 
arms. 

The revenue man considerately left them to their 
transports, and joined Mr. Graignic, who was ex- 
amining the body of the dead pirate with a puzzled 
face. In his absorption he only said shortly : 

‘'Zis is extraordinary! Ze man is dead. But 
zere is no blood, and I cannot find ze wound. It 
is a miracle 

At this moment his eye caught the slender, quiv- 
ering steel cleaning rod which stuck in the sand 
hard by. 

‘What is zat?’’ he demanded. 

Kennedy laughed, and then his face grew grim 
as he disengaged the sling still containing the 
smooth pebble the size of an egg from the clutch of 
the stififening hand : 

“See!’" he explained. “He was going to slug 
you or Miss Hogan with that. I had to shoot 
quick, and did not have time to take the cleaning 
rod out of the barrel.” He lifted the remnant of 
cotton blouse, and exposed the man’s side. A faint 
blue spot like a powder mark was apparent on the 
yellow skin, alongside the arm pit. He turned 
the body with his foot as he would have the carcass 
of a dog, and pointed to a similar blemish just 
above the right hip. 

“It must have bored his heart, and skewered him 
through the body like one of those duelling swords 


302 Captain Pete in Alaska 

you Frenchmen used to fight with in the old times.’’ 

“Sapristi!” said Mr. Graignic, using a long for- 
gotten oath. ''But where did ze bullet go?” 

It was Kennedy’s turn to look mystified : 

"By the sea serpent’s tail!” he exclaimed. "I 
must have used a blank cartridge ! I had some for 
signalling.” ' 

When Kennedy had thus made the occurrence 
clear they shook hands with earnestness as if they 
had just met. 

And I think we will say goodbye to them for 
the present. At any rate Grace and Pete were re- 
united, and there was a fortune in gold dust and 
nuggets in the chest in the cabin of the Grade. I 
don’t mind telling you that Pete had a number of 
surprising adventures before he succeeded in 
bringing that bullion down to the Sound, and put- 
ting it in the bank, but, after all, that is another 
story, and should not be told at the tail-end of 
Captain Pete in Alaska. 


THE END 


BOOKS BY 

COLONEL H. R. GORDON 

LOQAN, THE MINOO 

A Story of the Frontier. i2mo, cloth, gilt top, illus- 
trated $1.50 

RED JACKET, THE LAST OF THE SENECAS 

i2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated .... $1.50 

An exciting story of scouts and Indians in the expedition sent against the 
Six Nations in the year 1779. — The Outlook. 

A regular Indian story is “ Red Jacket, the Last of the Senecas,” by Colonel 
H. R. Gordon, author of three other popular books of Indian life and adven- 
ture. The scene is laid in central and western New York and covers the in- 
vasion of the country of the Six Nations by General Sullivan in 1779. — 
Boston Transcript. 

PONTIAC, CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS 

A Tale of the Siege of Detroit. i2mo, cloth, gilt top, 
illustrated ....... $1.50 

It presents a skilful study of the famous Indian’s individuality, conveyed 
without sacrificing the rapid movement and engrossing interest of the narra- 
tive. And both as bearing upon history and as an interpretation of character 
the book is of a high order, while its interest grows to the close. — Congrega- 
tionalist. 

OSCEOLA, CHIEF OF THE SEMINOLES 

Illustrated. i2mo, cloth, gilt top . . . $1.50 

There are no tales that interest boys more than Indian tales, and this is one 
of the best sort, exciting and varied, yet founded on fact and life-like. — N. Y. 
Observer. 

This lively and adventurous tale of the Seminole War will delight the 
hearts of all American boys. We are glad, too, to observe that the gallant 
author has the courage to tell the truth of the base treachery by which the 
great chief was ultimately captured. We wish there were more books like 
this for boys; and we cannot close without paying our compliments to the 
publishers on the pleasing dress in which they have given it to the public. — 
Church Standard. 

TECUMSEH, CHIEF OF THE SHAWANOES 

i2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated, 312 pages . $1.50 

Colonel Gordon contributes a well-written story of the famous Indian 
chief “ Tecumseh,” which is an important book for every b9y and girl to read 
carefully. It is far more than a book of entertainment, it is history told in a 
most fascinating way and full of information. — Churchman. 

There is a CTeat deal of life, action, stirring adventt^e in the story, with 
much desirable historical pabulum. — Buffalo Commercial. 


E. P. DUTTON & CO., Publishers 

31 West Twenty-third Street, New York 



A Tale of the Jilamo 

IN TEXAS WITH DAVY CROCKETT 

By EVERETT McNEIL 
A Story of the Texas Wat of Independence 

Illustrated. 12 mo $1.50 

The tale tells of the adventures of two boys, Trav 
and Tom, during that intensely dramatic and exciting 
period when Texas won her independence from Mexico 
— the most heroic in the history of America. The 
famous bear-hunter and backwoods statesman DAVY 
CROCKETT, and the even more famous SAM HOUS- 
TON, are the two leading historical characters in the 
story, while WILL TRAVIS, the ill-fated FANNIN, 
JIM BOWIE, of bowie-knife fame, DEAF SMITH, the 
famous Texan scout, and other characters well known 
in Texan history, play important, if minor, parts in the 
tale. 

The story begins a few weeks before the battle of 
the Alamo — one of the most heroic in all history ; carries 
the reader through the scenes of this battle and the still 
more terrible Goliad, and reaches its final climax in 
the battle of San Jacinto, where General Houston prac- 
tically annihilates the Mexican army, captures Santa 
Anna himself, and wins the Independence of Texas. 

Great care has been taken to have all historical 
data correct, and to give accurate pictures of the men 
and the times, while, at the same time, telling a story 
that will deeply interest the boy reader and make him 
anxious to go to his history in order to learn more of 
the heroic men in whose deeds it is hoped the tale has 
given him almost a personal interest. 


E. P. DUTTON & CO., Publishers 

31 West Twenty-third Street, New York 



BOYS’ BOOKS OF ADVENTURE 

By EVERETT McNEIL 


WITH KIT CARSON IN THE 
ROCKIES 

A Tale of the Beaver Country 

Illustrated, 12mo, $1,50 

The story of the wild and adventurous lives of the trappers among 
the Rockies before civilization had crossed the Missouri River, and of 
the long and perilous journey of two boys in search of Kit Carson and 
the solution of the secret they set forth to discover. 

IN TEXAS WITH DAVY CROCKETT 

A Story of the Texas War of Independence 

Illustrated, 12 mo, $1,50 

A tale of that intensely dramatic and exciting period when Texas 
won her independence from Mexico. The characters of the story are 
all well known historically and the reader is carried through the heroic 
episodes from the battle of the Alamo to the annihilation of the Mexican 
forces at San Jacinto. 

THE HERMIT OF 
THE CULEBRA MOUNTAINS 

Or, The Adventures of Two Schoolboys 
in the Far West 
Illustrated, 12mo, $1,50 

The experiences and adventures of two boys on a promised hunting 
trip in the mountains of Southern Colorado. The pleasures of the hunt 
are suddenly laid aside and the boys involved in Indian warfare and 
unexpected adventures with the mysterious Hermit of the Culebra 
Mountains, in his strange, mysterious home. 

THE LOST TREASURE CAVE 

Or, Adventures With the Cowboys of Colorado 

Illustrated, 12mo, $1,50 

The story of the search for the lost treasure cave, the secret of 
which had remained undiscovered for centuries, guarded by the mum- 
mies of the ancient Indians who hid the treasure before the destruction 
of their race in prehistoric times. 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

31 West 23d St. New York 



New books for boys, spirited tales of life and 
adventure, of toil and success amond the 
Bays and Islands of Puget Sound and alond 
the coast of the Northwest Country, 

By JAMES COOPER WHEELER 


Captain Pete of Puget 
Sound 

This story by a new author deals with the open- 
ing of the great Northwest, one of the most in- 
teresting events in American History to the boy 
mind. The hero — while in no sense a youthful 
prodigy — succeeds in making a name for himself, 
after having been instrumental in securing the 
arrest of smugglers who infested these regions. 
The book is written with a first-hand knowledge of 
the region and cannot fail to delight the boy 
reader. 

Illustrated with Full-page Plates. 12mo. Cloth, 91-AO 


Captain Pete of Cortesana 

Captain Pete in this book is able to secure an 
education — and to make a place for himself in the 
world. His further adventures, his friends, and his 
entrance into business form an admirable boys’ tale. 
Owing to the especial interest in the Puget Sound 
region this book is especially timely. 

Illustrated with Full-page Plates. 12nio. Cloth, $1.50 


E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 

31 West 23d St. • New York 
















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